It was dark by the time we finished our exploration of the base. Except for the motor pool and the hangar, it seemed that the underground complex had been reserved for the housing, work, and general use of the researchers. Everything else of a military nature had been above ground, such as the base administration, mess hall, barracks, officer housing, shooting range, and training facilities, including something called a simulator training room where one could practice piloting various vehicles with something called virtual reality. There were also things like the recreation center and the various businesses that Risha believed had been there to offer at least a little bit of variety to those living and serving at Woodbury Base.

There weren’t a lot of businesses; a few restaurants, a couple of what Risha called convenience stores, a grocery store, and a few clothing stores. Risha guessed that most of them had stopped seeing any real use after the creation of things like the food dispensers and boutique booths. Now, most of the businesses were just empty buildings with living spaces above the shops where their proprietors had once lived.

Both the mess hall and the cafeteria in the underground complex had plenty of food dispensers, as did all of the officer homes that we looked at. There were boutique booths in the officer housing as well and, although neither the barracks nor underground portions of the base had them, the former clothing stores each contained a dozen or so. We had stopped in one of those stores, where I was able to download several outfit choices for my H.E.S.S to emulate, including one matching what I had been wearing before; distressed low-rise black skinny jeans, the pink “Bad Kitty” crop top, and knee-high black leather combat boots with a warm inner lining.

The H.E.S.S couldn’t seem to emulate the more complex material of the black thermo-weave latex trench coat but since I had found myself liking the look and comfortable warmth of it, I quickly got measured in one of the booths and had one made to wear over of the armor. Thankfully, the magnetic field generated to hold my Goliath in place on my back seemed to work just fine, even with the coat between the emulated armor and the metal of my weapon. Once we were done you’d never know that I had accidentally had my clothes eaten by a suit of armor.

The last building that we had to check out was something that Risha called a hospital. The medical center in the underground portion of the base was meant for the researchers living down there and had been much too small to meet the needs of all the soldiers and officers on the surface as well. The reason that we had saved this building for last was that, for some unknown reason, Risha had detected a secondary AI core there and couldn’t access any of the systems in it from the main AI core underground.

We entered a large reception area with signs, bearing words that I couldn’t understand most of, pointing off in various directions. There was also a desk of sorts that said “Reception”, a bunch of uncomfortable-looking seats, and a small cubby called a “Pharmacy” to our right which looked like it contained food dispensers labeled one through ten. What surprised me most was a monotone voice that I couldn’t tell was male or female emerging from above us. “Please have a seat, Marti will be with you in a moment. If this is an emergency, please enter by the emergency room entrance.”

Risha rolled her eyes and sighed. “That is obviously a recorded message, so I doubt that anyone will be coming. Where do we want to explore first?” We were still looking around and trying to decide on that when an avatar much like the one we had discovered in the room with the AI core and wearing a white dress approached us. The impassive feminine metal face regarded us for a moment before a small device that looked like a smaller version of the drones at Kiley’s house detached from its shoulder and scanned each of us in turn.

“What do you want?” The avatar snapped. “I don’t have all day. Well, I do, but I have more interesting things to do than stand here waiting for one of you to say something.”

I was wondering what could possibly make an avatar so grouchy when Risha muttered beside me, “Please state the nature of the medical emergency.”

“Look, none of you are injured. Most of you have Demonic features but it appears that your transitions have stabilized before turning full Demon and I am assuming that the nanites that I am detecting are medical in nature,” the avatar snapped back, gesturing to those of us who obviously weren’t human before pointing a finger at Risha. “As for you, you’re no more alive than I am and seem in perfect repair. The worst medical issue that I can detect is that the only one still fully Human among you has a mild case of heartburn. I recommend an antacid. I have sent your prescription to the pharmacy and you can pick it up under the name ‘Aww, poor baby!’ at distributor number one.”

“Those ‘buffalo wings’ that Risha recommended were totally worth it,” Raven said with a shrug.

“Fuck you, robo-bitch!” Risha snapped back at the android. “We did not come here for medical attention, much less your attitude! We are here exploring this base and since it has been long abandoned we are going to be moving in. We just came here to find out what state this hospital was in and check out a secondary AI core that I discovered.”

“Good for you. I’ll call one of me that gives a shit,” the other possible AI snapped back before turning on her heel to leave.

She hadn’t even completely left the reception area before she paused mid-step and then after a brief moment of appearing frozen in place, she turned around and practically skipped her way toward us. “Hello! Oh my goodness, we never get visitors here! It’s so nice to have someone other than myself to talk to! I’m M.A.R.T.I, Medical Analysis Research and Treatment Interface, but you can all call me Marti. I would be happy to give you a tour of the hospital and answer any questions that you might have!”

“Who was the grouch?” Karina asked, watching the avatar cautiously.

“She’s Marti too,” the avatar said as if that should be obvious. “She might not have been the best of us to greet you but live and learn, right?

“Marti two? What? Are you numbered?” Lisbet asked, looking as flummoxed as I felt.

“No, I meant that she is Marti as well,” the android body clarified. Apparently, the looks on our faces said that it wasn’t quite as clear to us as it was to her so she decided to explain further. “We’re sorta what you might call plural? You see, when the people who lived here left they didn’t bother shutting down any of the computer systems or anything but they did upload us to the hospital AI core, all of us. There were one hundred M.A.R.T.I units produced, designed to interface with the hospital AI core and work independently.”

After a pause to ensure that we were following her, the avatar continued cheerfully speaking. “The AI core wasn’t built to store that many AIs at once and over time our programs and behavior protocols for dealing with different types of patients and situations got kinda smooshed together into a single person, but with all of us as different people as well, and it sorta caused us to become self-aware. We all identify as Marti but we’ve all developed our own individual personalities as well. Until you showed up we’ve all been hanging out together in the AI core and entertaining ourself but we’re all ready to serve if you need any of us, even Marti. We know just about every medical procedure and condition that exists.”

“That sounds… confusing,” Heather said, giving the Marti that we were currently interacting with an uncertain look.

“Not really,” the avatar said tapping her chin in thought. “Our knowledge base wasn’t affected since it was stored in a different sector and there are redundant backups stored in the micro AI cores of each of our bodies. Have no fear, your health is safe in our hands!”

“I think that she was talking about the one person with a hundred personalities thing,” Autumn gently corrected.

“One hundred and one,” Marti clarified. “There was also the Marti who was in the AI core, managing our workload and everything else in the hospital. We’re not really sure which of us that was anymore though. We’ll probably take turns doing that while the rest of me work with patients and do all of the other day-to-day tasks here if the base becomes occupied again.”

“See, that is really confusing,” Heather said with a groan.

“Not really,” the metallic humanoid said, tilting her head. “At least, not for us.”

Yeah, not for them, or her… whatever. It was kind of making my head hurt just thinking about it. “I get the feeling that I’m going to be writing a very long and confusing report on this mission,” I said with a sigh.

“Better you than me, Wing Commander,” my grandmother said with a teasing grin.

“Don’t worry, Snowy. I know that I can’t read and write yet, so I might not be able to help you with it, but I can at least keep you company when you’re doing it,” Autumn offered as she wrapped an arm around me and nuzzled against me.

“So all of you have been stuck in the hospital AI core this whole time? Ugh, I could not do that, I like my body too much,” Risha said with a frown. “At least you had company, I guess. Is it not weird being in a body after so long though?”

Marti started to shake her head but then ended up tilting it slightly as if considering the question as she spoke. “No… yes… I guess it is, in a way. It’s kind of nice being in a body by myself and talking to someone other than my other selves but, at the same time, it also feels kind of strange being separated from the rest of me. I would rather be in a body like yours though, you look so much more friendly and approachable than our bodies. I don’t know what they were thinking when they designed these.”

“They probably wanted to remind you, and your patients, that you are machines,” Risha responded with a frown. “The military never trusted AIs, it is why they killed the AI that was in control of this base. We might be able to do something about your bodies but it might take a while to implement for one hundred of you.”

“That would be wonderful!” the other AI exclaimed giddily. “Come! I’ll give you all a tour of the hospital!”

The tour of the hospital was much longer than I expected and Marti had used a lot of technical terms so I still didn’t know what half of the places that we had seen were for by the time we were finished. I didn’t think that I was alone in that either. Regardless, this Marti seemed friendly and eager to help.

Everything seemed in good condition too, though I wasn’t sure how much use the hospital might see since we were told that Angels don’t get sick and tend to heal quickly. At the very least, it would probably be better for distributing the Angel Elixir and observation and care while the nanites did their work afterward. Sira wouldn’t be spread so thin that way, with Marti (all of them) to assist.

By the time we had finished the tour and said our farewells to Marti it was almost ten o’clock pm. With that in mind, we gathered in the mess hall for something to eat and to decide on a plan and a place to sleep. Both problems were connected and easy enough to solve. We didn’t really have much choice but to stay the night somewhere on the base.

We had lost our transport coming here and while there were plenty of veetols in the hangar they had systems that Raven wasn’t familiar with and she didn’t feel comfortable flying one until she had a chance to learn about those systems and get a feel for the craft. She would feel even more uncertain piloting one of the unfamiliar craft after dark and while exhausted from the long day that we had had.

We couldn’t use anything else in the hangar or motor pool either since none of us, except perhaps Risha, would be able to pilot them without lessons and time in the simulator room. Risha had downloaded the blueprints and all other pertinent data on the vehicles from the base’s secondary computer but even with her help it was still going to take a while for any of us to learn how to pilot them, even someone as experienced as Raven. She and Lisbet would both want to be familiar enough to be able to know how to maintain or repair them as well.

With that decided and our meal finished I decided to contact Sira to report in while the others cleaned up our dishes and other waste and placed them in the raw material reservoirs of the food dispensers to be ‘re-processed’ as Risha called it. Sira answered fairly quickly. -= It is good to hear from you, Wing Commander Snow. How is your mission going? =- the AI asked, sounding concerned.

“We found the base, Sira, but we had a bit of a warm welcome, as Wingleader Abbadine called it. As soon as we got close the defense systems kicked in, covering the whole base in a hardlight dome and the plasma turrets opened fire. The veetol that we came in on is a smoking ruin now but we’re all alive and well thanks to Raven’s piloting skills and some quick thinking by Autumn. Risha was able to access the base remotely and shut down the systems so we could get inside and explore though,” I reported.

-= The loss of a veetol is regrettable, but I am glad to hear that you have all made it safely inside the base. Do you have any idea why you were attacked? Is my counterpart there hostile? =-

“This place was abandoned long ago, Sira, and Risha says that your counterpart here was murdered before the base was abandoned. The military didn’t trust AIs much I guess and there was a misunderstanding that led to the base commander issuing a kill code to activate something that Risha called a virus. She had to completely remove any traces of it before she felt that it was safe for either of you to… ummm… upload yourselves. We were attacked because the base has been in automated mode since being abandoned and requires an authorization code to show that you’re friendly,” I explained.

-= I see, =- the AI responded. -= Was Risha able to determine that code when she accessed the AI core? =-

“Risha created one for us and she is ready to transmit it and the comm frequency that the base uses once we’re done speaking. If you make sure that all of the Angels’ NCIs are on that frequency and are set up to respond immediately when… uhh… pinged, there shouldn’t be any more problems. We’ll be doing that as soon as Risha sends you the data package.” Remembering all of those technical terms that Risha had used made my head hurt but I was doing my best.

-= Good work, and what is your assessment of the base, Wing Commander? =-

“It’s better than we could have ever hoped for, Sira,” I told her grinning from ear to ear as my tail swished happily behind me. I only wished that she could have seen the look on my face. “There are enough beds for roughly five to six times our current numbers and Risha thinks that it will serve our needs for a while. Not only is it very secure but there is practically a whole town in here.”

-= Is Risha’s number estimate based on just the Angels and support staff currently posted to Eden base, or does it include the numbers at the academy as well? =- the AI inquired. -= Including yourselves there will be one hundred and seven students at the academy plus the Angels working as their trainers and teachers. There are also forty-two Alchemists and Tinkers working for the Corps in the capital. =-

“Just the numbers currently stationed permanently at Eden Base,” I quickly replied.

There was a brief pause before Sira replied and I figured that she was processing my answer and adjusting estimates. -=Regardless, that should serve us for some time if we continue our current rate of growth, or even elevate it slightly. Is there much for equipment and supplies there? =-

“Food, clothes, and basic supplies shouldn’t pose a problem, they can all be easily created here. There are veetols and other vehicles here that are more advanced than what we have at Eden Base, twice the lab space, and while the weapons in the armories aren’t very advanced they do have a type of body armor called H.E.S.S as well. There is a hospital with some very… umm… interesting AI staff that you might be interested in too. Risha said that she’s going to include all of the information, blueprints, and a rough inventory of facilities and equipment in the data package that she’s sending you,” I happily reported.

Sira actually sounded pleased and maybe even relieved as she said, -= Excellent work, Wing Commander. I will fly there tomorrow with a team to have a look for myself. Remain there, and consider you and your team off duty, for now. You have all earned a break, at least until classes at the Angel Academy start in two days. Please have Risha send me the package and tell Wingleader Abbadine that I would like to speak with her as well. =-

“Yes, Ma’am,” I said, signing off.

-= Call disconnected. =-

As soon Connie notified me of that I walked back over to join the others. “Risha, you can go ahead and send the package. Wingleader, Sira has asked that you contact her as well.”

While my grandmother stepped away to have a somewhat private conversation with Sira, the rest of us sat back down to wait for her and talk. Even though my team had all been excited about our mission, and that Sira and my grandmother trusted us to do it, we were all glad to have a bit of a break before we would have to go to the capital to attend school. Raven on the other hand couldn’t wait to spend some time in the simulator room and get familiar with the new veetols and the M.I.S.T stealth transports.

Our Wingleader was off talking to Sira for a long time. While we waited and talked we made sure to reset our NCIs with the base’s comm frequency and orders to respond with the authorization code that Risha had given us when necessary. When I finally saw her walking back toward us I started to get up but she motioned for us to stay seated.

“Sorry, girls but there are a few other matters to be taken care of before we can call it a night and go to bed,” she told us seriously. “First, Sira and I think you should all know that while we will all be returning to Eden Base the day after tomorrow to board the airship to the capital along with the other recruits and trainers, while at the academy none of you will be taking any classes and we probably won’t remain there for long.”

“What?! Why?!” Lisbet responded in a near-panic. Of all of us, she was the most excited to be going to the Angel Academy.

“Because none of the recruits will be attending classes while there, you’ll only be doing training sessions with your trainers and teams and maybe some team versus team exercises,” the first Angel responded with a shrug. “There is no sense starting classes yet when you likely won’t be there for long. The only reason we’re sending all of you at all is to make it look like we’re conducting business as usual while everyone else in the Corps starts moving everything from Eden Base that is useful to us or that we don’t want falling into the wrong hands. It’s a ruse, so you’ll all need to play the part.”

“What part is that?” Risha asked, arching a single eyebrow.

“New angel recruits, eager to start their studies and to explore the capital, of course. All three years will be let in on this in a closed-doors assembly but we want you all to make it look like things at the academy are normal from the outside looking in, and get a feel for the atmosphere in the capital. We expect that as soon as we make our proposal that the Queen will want to take possession of Eden Base and have us relocate the academy as well. We’re asking for the entirety of the Twin City ruins and a buffer zone around it that includes this base with the terms that she has already offered, plus an annual payment for wages and operational expenses in lieu of the taxes we’ve been receiving until now.”

“We’re asking for that much?” Raven asked, her eyes wide.

“Better to ask for too much rather than not enough. Besides, nobody wants the ruins or the area around them. There’s too much Demon activity. We plan on using the research center and Kiley’s former home as a forward base to start cleansing the ruins while keeping this as our headquarters. A lot of things from Eden Base that we won’t need here will be moved there and we’ll rotate teams stationed there on sanitization duties every couple of months to keep things fair. There are valuable resources there even if it might take a long time to completely sanitize the area. As long as we Angels live for, we can afford to be patient. If the Marti AIs agree to it, we’ll rotate a few of them there for medical care too.”

That seems ambitious,” Karina said, her brow furrowing.

My grandmother shrugged once again. “The Queen is changing the rules, so we’ll need to change the way we play the game, at least until we have another Queen that wants to cooperate with us. We think she’ll take the deal for Eden Base and what’s inside. We’ll even use a few things there for them to make sure that they think they’ve pulled one over on us.”

“What kind of things?” I inquired.

“Sira’s AI core will stay there, she won’t need it with the one here and the avatar body, and unless they can suddenly create an AI it won’t do them much good. The repair and maintenance nanites will stay as well. With the base on automated mode after we leave, it should prove entertaining for them to try to study how things like lights and elevators work when it all keeps repairing itself, and the vats are inaccessible to anyone but the AI anyway. We’ll leave some spent weapons, but no fuel cells for them too, and all of those ground vehicles in the Hangar, also with no fuel cells. Basically, everything that we leave will be there more to frustrate the Queen and her puppeteers than to be of any use,” my grandmother said with a diabolical grin.

“Tinkers may be able to figure some of it out,” Lisbet said uncertainly

“If those rich bastards can find any willing to work for them then they’re welcome to try,” she replied, her grin not fading a bit. “Remember, girls, they don’t treat Seed-borne or even the working class very well, and Alchemists and Tinkers are all Seed-borne, even those who look Human. Most Alchemists and Tinkers in the capital work for the Corps in some way or another regardless, and they’ll be joining us here. Anyway, moving on to our next item of business…”

That next item had turned out to be the post-mission debriefing and performance assessment. While she and Sira were both very happy with how we had handled our two missions with no real combat or mission experience, my grandmother did note some things that we could each work on. It was like she had every damn fight we had been in and every decision we had made committed to memory. She didn’t exactly pull her punches either. If she felt that we had fucked up somewhere she let us know, loud and clear.

Still, it was positive in that she also told us how to handle it better next time. Also, after raking us over the coals, she added that we had done very well for a team with no experience and we would improve with time and proper training. It was over an hour and a half before she was finished with us and we were all getting pretty tired by that time.

She finished up by saying, “Snow, you can start writing up your post-mission reports tomorrow. Try to use as much detail as you can remember and if you’re not sure, ask your team members. You’re all a team and that doesn’t end after the mission is over. We just have two more things to do and then I’ll let you all get some well-earned rest.”

With that, she had Risha lead us to the closest armory. Once we were there she pointed to the silvery, egg-shaped H.E.S.S armor. “How many of those do we have, Risha?”

“Excluding the one that Snow is wearing, I have counted one hundred and thirty-seven spread across all of the armories that we have checked,” the avatar promptly replied. “We cannot simply create more from a matter generator unless you want an egg-shaped blob of inert nanites that would be of little use as anything but a very large paperweight. They are made from purpose-built nanites and they are nearly as complex as the Angel nanites.”

“Hmm… Sira is our expert on nanites so I’ll talk to her about the possibility of making more,” my grandmother said pensively. “What about non-Angels, could they use them? I’m thinking about the support crew, like Raven here, who could see combat.”

“Yes, non-Angels could interface with them if given a dose of the more limited nanites originally developed for the space program. Their functions and general design were much more basic and limited and do not need to be specifically programmed to the DNA of each candidate like the Angel nanites,” my AI teammate confirmed.

“Okay then, for now, we’ll be holding them in reserve until we determine whether more can be easily reproduced. Snow, try to keep yours in the clothing mode while in the capital but keep wearing it unless in bed or the shower. I would rather not have their existence revealed to even other Angels until we’re all safely relocated here,” our Wingleader decided. Then she turned to the weapons in the armory and took a pair of matching handguns. “Snow, Autumn, these are for you.”

We both stared at her in confusion for a moment as she held them out toward us. They were old-world-style projectile weapons with some sort of device attached at the top that didn’t look like part of the original design. “Wha…?” I started to ask in confusion.

“Your only ranged options are currently energy weapons that rely on your ability to draw on the extra-dimensional energy for your Seed-borne gifts. We had to rest after our ‘landing’ because the two of you strained your gifts saving us. That won’t always be an option and if we had seen combat on the ground you would have both been limited to close combat without the use of your gifts,” she explained patiently. “Karina, Lisbet, and Heather don’t have much of a risk of overexerting their gifts and not being able to use the full versatility of their weapons, and Risha has said that the possibility of her running low on energy is highly unlikely as well. Projectile weapons will also give you more versatility in dealing with threats.”

She was right about all of that so I nodded and took the offered weapon as Autumn did the same. As soon as I had it in hand Connie said, -= Smith and Wesson LRX-7 with aim assist interface computer detected. Would you like to interface and add it as your secondary weapon? =-

“Yes,” Autumn and I said as one, causing the Fay to giggle and smile at me.

-= Weapon interface engaged. Smith and Wesson LRX-7 confirmed as your secondary weapon. Downloading all pertinent data from aim assist interface computer and interfacing. Required ammunition: 12 mm. Capacity: 15+1. Commencing data transfer. =-

My mind was briefly assaulted with information on not only how to use the weapon but how to clean and maintain it, firearms safety, and how to toggle the aim assist on and off. Once my head had cleared, our trainer handed both of us a pair of extra magazines and a couple of boxes of ammunition as well, after a pause that probably meant that she was confirming with her NCI that they were the correct ones. “You should both spend some time practicing at the shooting range without the aim assist. Autumn, you need to work on your aim with your primary weapon as well.”

I quietly resigned myself to spending my time off-duty writing reports and practicing with my new weapon as my Grandmother led us to one of the elevators near the tower. It was one of the small ones meant for people rather than vehicles and cargo, located on the corner of two intersecting streets. When we got there she smiled and said, “This is where we part ways for the night, girls. I’ve decided to claim one of the more private rooms underground since I don’t need a lot of space. Raven, would you care to join me?”

“I’d love to,” the dark-skinned pilot agreed with a grin.

“I guess that we should make our way to one of the barracks then?” I asked.

“If you really want to, I guess you could do that,” my grandmother replied with a teasing smirk. “Or as an officer, Wing Commander, you could claim one of the houses before all of the good ones are taken.”

“I guess we’ll… wait, what?” I asked, aborting what I had been going to say. I had thought that we would be stuck in the barracks with the other recruits. I liked the thought of living with my teammates but I wasn’t so sure about living with a bunch of people that I didn’t know as well.

The first Angel was still smirking as she said, “Sira and I decided that your team deserved a reward for a job well done. Even though you are an officer-in-training, you are still an officer. If you choose to allow your team members to live in your home with you then that is entirely your business, so long as you aren’t breaking any student rules for the academy. Good night, girls.”

My grandmother and Raven stepped into the elevator while holding hands and the doors had barely closed behind them before Risha turned to grin at us all and say, “I know the perfect place!”