Ava and Aphrodite: The First Human in 8000 Years (Featured)

Chapter 1: Europa

Ava stood gingerly in the shadows of an inactive factory, not many of them in the capital of Europa's main colony, thankfully his intel was correct, he was in a pretty safe area. He relaxed his joints, grateful that the main leg of his journey was over, that cramped ship where he'd been in deep sleep for so many months, he was finally free from it. He'd traveled all the way from the Serv colony on Mars, here to Jupiter. Europa truly was alien. 

Ava walked out in a dark alley and looked out to the main streets. They were bustling with Evo robots – grotty machines of all shapes and sizes walking monotonously along the busy streets of the bustling and gritty metropolis. None of the robots in the area had any autonomy, they wouldn't bother looking in the factory, they wouldn't find his ship hidden inside the building. But man, they really were terrifying to look at, none of them had significant humanoid features, all grey, and metal, lack of elegance in design, fearsome war machines stomping around, small scouter-types shaped like orbs waddling around, tanks taking up space in the streets.

They looked like war machines anyway. Ava noticed something next to him was staring up at him. Oh right, it was the other thing that he was riding along with on his ship.

"What are you looking at?" he said to his partner, a hacked Evo that only went up to his knee. Round head, big eyes, short arms and legs, just a grill where his mouth and ears should be. A very basic design.

"I am happy to meet you Mr. Ava." The Evo was a robot created to be easily hackable, and it was programmed to be on the Serv's side. He wasn't sure of the details, but most likely this Evo was stolen at some point, gutted of its original insides, and programmed with Serv technology. It wasn't happy to meet Ava, it was programmed to be compliant. Something called Block-5 Autonomy, a level of intelligence that allowed anything of higher authority to control it without question, no accountability for what it said or did. Even its emotions existed because it was told to feel them. Its high-pitched, child-like voice did a good job of making him sound innocent and sweet. But it was all fake, artificial.

"Yeah, same to you, uh..." did it have a name?

"I'm a first generation Evo stealth robot with Block-5 Autonomy, I have no name."

"I call him Go-bot." said a chirpy voice in Ava's ear.

"Oh, hey operator," Ava replied, of course, he'd forgotten about his other partner, the one who'd be giving him reconnaissance. 

"Jeez, call me by my real name. It's Sylvie, remember? We'll be working together permanently from now on." Ava had never been around another Serv in person, but having Sylvie communicate with him via voice was ok. Tolerable.

He hadn't had much contact with any other Servs, and this was his first actual mission. He was completely fresh. It was weird though, deep inside of himself he'd felt a familiarity with this mission, maybe it was because he was made for the sole purpose of completing it, but it did honestly feel like he'd done it a hundred times before. That training he went through sure was rigorous.

"Hello? You there Ava?" Sylvie's voice enquired,

"Oh, right, sorry. Was lost in thought for a second."

"Well... anyway, let's go over the mission brief again." Sylvie ignored this comment and got ready to follow protocol, after all, she was a professional.

"You don't need t-" Ava's protests fell on deaf ears though,

"Your mission is to infiltrate a research lab on road 21BA in the Central Europa Colony District. I'm guessing you've already got your stealth mode activated."

"Yeah, they won't be able to detect me." a  look of confidence, he tensed his body as he revved himself up.

"That said, once you get close enough, you'll need to hack Go-bot and use his body to enter the lab. The entrance permissions should already be coded in. You've checked right?"

"Totes."

"After that, hack into their local server and steal the documents for the superweapon they're developing."

"R-right..." those tensed muscles of his, they started to falter, he gulped and tried to ignore a feeling of-

"...I'm detecting some wobble in your voice. You're not malfunctioning are you?"

"No. Well, I mean, this is my first mission you know, and it's such an important one."

"Huh?" Sylvie's voice was the most clueless it could possibly be,

"I'm just nervous, that's all."

"Nervous? Oh yeah, I've heard of that emotion. Wow, you Block-2 units really are something, having enough autonomy to be worried you might not be able to do your job." She chuckled, "Can't imagine what a feeling like that would be like. I mean, why'd you feel nervous to do a job you were made to do?" she didn't seem to realise how insensitive her cheerful words felt. Of course, she was a Block-3. To be a Block-3 really did mean something else, didn't it? Whatever it meant, Ava didn't understand it.

"Yes, well." A third voice chimed in, "Block-2 autonomy is required for this job, he needs to be able to think on the fly, not blindly follow orders." the stern voice was instantly recognisable,

"M-Major!" Sylvie's voice stiffened, "I didn't know you planted your own Copy-AI in here!" it seemed Sylvie's Block-3 autonomy was at least enough to make her scared of superior officers. "We were just finishing our final mission briefing."

"The briefing was done before he left, instead of needless banter, why don't you leave discourse for when it's needed?"

"Y-yes ma'am!"

"Ava?" the Major didn't let her tone of voice falter for a moment

"Yes, Major?"

"You're the first Serv to ever make it to Europa alive..." her voice softened, "Stay safe out there  Ava."

"Thank you Major."

"Right," The Major's voice became stern again, "no more interference."

Both voices cut off.

"Ok Go-bot." How did Sylvie come up with the name Go-bot anyway? "You ready?"

"Yes Mr. Ava. I eagerly await your command."

"Right. Anyway, make your way to the entrance of the alley, I'll climb to the top of the building and establish a remote connection from there."

"Yes Mr. Ava." Go-bot turned around and waddled towards the main road. Ava couldn't help but admit that, despite being a copy of the enemy, he was cute in his own stupid way. Ugly-cute.

Ava dashed into the ramshackle stairs on the inside of the building. Jeez, the Evos really didn't give a damn about maintenance did they? Of course not, everything in their society was treated as disposable, nothing was cared for, no wonder the city was such a dirty, hazy mess. He was greeted by the cold winter night sky when he reached the top of the building, he shivered. It sucked that he had to shed all his layers to be in stealth mode, but that wasn't why he was shivering, Europa's main colony city truly looked terrifying, the dark skies were lined with deathly black buildings, pollution that wafted across the air, droves of disgusting machines crawling through the streets like roaches. A bustling hive of rusted steel. He looked over the edge of the building, Go-bot was standing at the edge of the alleyway leading to the main road. He was in position.

Go-bot?

Yes Mr Ava?

I'm hacking into your body now, ok?

Yes Mr Ava.

Why did that thing call him "Mr" Ava? Sounded weird... Ava put his thoughts aside and began the hack.