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The sound of an elevator platform moving down could be heard from the bottom floor of the Exo-Taranis. Off of it stepped Britz, clutching his head in his left paw, and holding his belt with his right, stumbling past the farm areas on the bottom layer. His head was throbbing- he had gotten injured, where a Wurzelwurm hit his cockpit hard, and he had been thrown back by the impact, where his head had hit the wall. Malt had immediately instructed for him to pull back and for Kyle to take his place, but instead of waiting in reserves and letting Chick check on him, he had bailed altogether. His mind was unclear, and he couldn't stand to be out there any longer. He could tell the fight was still on going- the Exo-Taranis still swayed and the sounds of shells and explosions still boomed, albeit muffled as they were from his distance. It wasn't enough to knock him off his paws and distract from his objective. He made his way past the lively clucken and moosheep, and into the innocent looking hallway beyond it.
Every child on the Taranis knew about it. At first its unassuming- just a few storage closets lined the halls, used to store machine parts and other junk. In fact, they were using one of them to store Baum and Stollen- although the cracked door of their holding suggested they had gotten out at some point, and are probably wandering about aimlessly. That was fine by Britz- with them out of the way, there should be no one around to stop him.
The further down you go down that narrow hallway, the more suffocating it feels. Its a trick of the mind- the hallways seem redder, the hums and whistles of the piping covering the interior of the Taranis gets louder, and the air gets stiffer- even the stench of farm animals can't reach here. At the end of the corridor was a dreadful weapon- the Soul Cannon. Every child can recall a time they accidentally wandered too far into the depths of the Taranis, and came back up a little shaken upon seeing it. Although it has never been used, every child could feel the unease the mere presence of such a weapon could cause.
Although it hasn't been used, yet.
Britz sucked in a breath through his nose. He could hear every step his boots took, reverberating across the walls. The Soul Cannon seemed to be beating, almost alive, a horrible creation at the hands of mankind, that persisted beyond them. And yet it lured him in, offering something he couldn't refuse. Something he'd desire in his bleakest of moments. A way out.
Despite its existence being well known, nobody had tried to ever open the thing, so Britz had to pioneer his way in. A nearby lever seemed to be the most likely solution; he gripped the metal lever with his paws, and began to pull. Despite his best efforts, however, it wouldn't budge, simply holding itself in place. Britz was beyond himself. How could this not be working? Was it rusted over? No, that's not possible, the Exo-Taranis is relatively new. But how-
“Britz Strudel. Return to your battle station immediately.”
A staticky voice called from above him, not from any specific source, but from wherever it could beckon from. The voice made his fur stand up on end- it was Hax, the brand new ai assistant to the Exo-Taranis. It sounded of the former military general to the Berman empire, and while everyone felt shocked at his presence at first, Britz swears he could never get used to it. However, it's rude interruption reminded him- Hax has control of the Soul Cannon as well.
“Hax, open the Soul Cannon chamber.” Britz commanded, still uselessly tugging at the lever, not looking away from it.
“Proposal denied. Soul Cannon usage is prohibited unless it's an emergency.”
Damned hypocrite. What Hax considered an emergency was arbitrary, and when Hax decided it he would put a random child into the Soul Cannon. It wasn't too long ago Jin was selected as the unlucky victim of this ai, and while they managed to resolve the battle before anything escalated, Jin wouldn't talk about what happened in there after the fact. And maybe, that was for the best.
“Load me into the Soul Cannon early! Save the energy for later!” Britz was getting frustrated, moving from the lever to the door itself, attempting to pry it open with his claws. It was a futile effort and a part of him knew it, yet he went for it regardless.
“Pre loading the cannon will always be less efficient than having a child out to fight. I will not adhere to your request.”
“Then- Then-” Britz stuttered out. “Then put me in the next time you select someone! No one else should have to die.”
“There is no bias in the selection process.” Hax stated. “The selection is entirely random.”
“Of course. That's how we got into this mess in the first place.” He muttered under his breath. He kicked the door once, as if it would do him any good. His frustration seemed to melt away into something worse- despair. Sighing, he gave up, instead deciding to slump down on the floor and rest, his headache seeming to have only gotten worse. He leaned his back against the door of the Soul Cannon. It was warm.
Letting himself rest, he listened to hear if it would say anything else. With no monitors there was no Hax to stare at, so Britz looked up towards the ceiling instead. Hax had fallen eerily silent, but the machine, the Taranis, appeared to have gotten noisier. The pipes whirled, the vents howled, the metal scrapped against itself over and over again, in a methodical melody. Britz could almost say it sounded like it was thinking.
“If I may be so bold to ask.” Hax started again without warning, making Britz almost jump. “Is this about what happened with Hanna?”
Britz could feel his mouth form into a snarl. Hax knew that the subject was personal- to every single crew member onboard. No one had really gotten past her death. Grief struck all of them upon her mention- a friend lost to the tides of a battle that wasn't really theirs. “... You must have a damned good reason to bring that up.”
There was no initial response- only the gears turning within the Taranis seeming to get louder, before halting again.
“I hear of your conversations with the others. The way you speak of it as if it was your own fault.”
Britz grimaced. While the ai did its best to pretend it could give a sense of privacy to the children in their day to day lives, the reality that it could, and was, always able to listen in to them, wasn't too shocking.
“...You should've saved Hanna first that day. She'd still be alive if you did.”
“There is no bias in the selection process. The selection is entirely random.” Hax repeated monotonously.
“Yeah, that's the problem...” Britz mumbled. He was beating around the bush. It wasn't a secret how he felt about that day.
Hanna should've been saved that day instead of him.
If she was still alive, she could've kept trying to talk to Jihl, just as she had before.
Maybe she could've been able to convince him to stop fighting. That's certainly something he can't manage to do.
And even if she couldn't, at least everyone's morale would've been better. Everyone missed Hanna, but if he died, nobody would really miss-
“There is no sufficient way to calculate how one person's life is more valuable than another. There are no calculations that can be done before selection. Therefore the only option for those situations is random selection.” Hax further elaborated, snapping Britz out of his spiraling thoughts. He scoffed.
“That's bold coming from you. Where was that mentality during the invasion of Gasco?” At this point Britz had shifted his sitting position to hugging his legs, resting his muzzle on his knees.
“You are referring to when I was alive. You are misinformed. The version of me now is not the same as the one from before. I am not really Hax. I am an ai built from the collection of memories and appearances from the original Hax.”
There was a moment of pause. Then, Hax spoke up again, its voice crackling. “I can estimate why you are bitter. You are in a higher percentage of Hax's memories than any other resident here.”
Britz grimaced. It wasn't shocking information that ai Hax would know more about him than anyone else, but it still wasn't pleasant to hear. Beyond that, he ended up thinking about his own past with him as well.
“ ... Did Hax ever really consider my family a threat at all? Was it really worth persecuting us for my fathers crimes?”
The ai seemed to ponder for a moment. The caninu could hear steam billow from a pipe outside. “To Hax? Not particularly. There was no confirmed link between your father's betrayal and your family. Still any excuse to draft a citizen into the military was taken. Hax didn't care about much of anything at that time. His only concern was the revival of Vanargand, and the domination of the Berman Empire over Gasco.”
Britz could feel his emotions flaring up. “Back then, you hurt so many people. So many felinekos were persecuted and killed under your watch. And- And you lied to me. You told me you had my family hostage! I betrayed everyone. If they hadn't told me the truth, I would've-” He could feel himself choking up, and stopped himself. If there's one thing living in the Berman Empire taught him, it was that crying was a weakness, and he certainly wasn't going to show that weakness now.
“I remember.” The radio voice of Hax remarked. “I can remember that day you betrayed the children of this tank. It wasn't much to him. Removing you from their group was only a tiny advantage, but it was an advantage Hax would take if it meant he could succeed.”
“You do realize, you aren't that much different now, right?” Britz interjected.
“There is a nonzero I inherited some ruthlessness from Hax. Only he would be as mad as to start a war over a children's fairy tale. You could speculate my ai had been influenced by him. But I'm not enough of him to be certain. My main prerogative is not what it was when he was alive. My goal continues to be to serve as the navigator of this tank and get as many of you to end of this war as soon as possible, no matter what it takes.”
A silence unfolded after Hax spoke. Britz thought it might've had nothing else to say, but upon straining his ears he could hear some chatter from the upper floors. The battle must've ended, He figured. Hax must've turned its attention to running diagnostics. The puppy rubbed at his eyes with his gloves. Guilt bit at him. How typical of him to abandon his friends when they needed him. How could he-
“You aren't the same as you were in my memories as well.” Hax continued without warning, startling Britz. “You've grown considerably. Your behaviors and mannerisms are more confident than before. Your time out of the Berman Empire appears to have done some good.”
Britz raised an eyebrow. “What are you getting at?”
“Despite what I've done you've gotten better. While Hax had succumbed to his own hubris, you've continued to stay standing. You've outlived Berman's own crown general. You should feel some pride.”
Britz opened his mouth to speak again, but it continued before he could. “It would be ill advised to throw it all away for naught. I could never apologize for what Hax had done to you or anyone else. All I can do now is ask you to keep moving forward.”
Britz was feeling baffled. It was bizarre to hear those words from the Berman general himself. And yet… It felt nice to have someone encourage him like that. Even if it was the man he hated the most. “… Thank you, Hax.” He felt a weak smile form on his lips.
“Certainly. I hope you've returned to some sense.” The static voice of Hax crackled. “Now, you are to return to the upper floors. See to it with haste.”
Sighing, the grey doberman uncurled himself. He stood up, patting himself off. He felt a sharp pain as his headache came back to him, gritting his teeth and trying to ignore it. He turned to leave when he was interrupted again.
“I have put in one other measure to get you back up that I hadn't informed you of. You will see it shortly.” Britz called out for Hax to elaborate, but he was left with no response. As he started to walk out, he noticed someone running towards him from the beginning of the hallway. His ears perked up upon hearing a female voice call out his own name.
“Britz! There you are! We've been looking for you everywhere!” A snow white felineko ran towards him, carrying a doll in her right arm. Her voice sounded relieved.
“Sheena!” The caninu called back, sprinting towards her. “I'm sorry, I hadn't meant to leave like I did.”
Once they got close, Sheena threw her arms around him in a hug. “That's ok! Everyone was just worried when we couldn't find you. Hax gave me a tip you were down here.”
Britz embraced her back, his tail wagging behind him. So he did, huh? He let out an amused sigh. Sheena let him go, grabbing his paw with her left one, interlocking them together. It was warm. She pulled him forward, the two walking out of the hallway together. As soon as the two of them made it back out to the farm, a shorter boy wearing a broken helmet dashed towards them to greet them.
“Hey! Britz! There you are!” Shouted the boy; it was Hack, who was looking intently at Britz. “Are you ok? Are you hurt? Were you afraid? Were you worse than afraid? The, uh, de-pressed?”
Britz couldn't help but be amused by the overzealous kid. “I'm alright. I was just hurt and, I guess you could say depressed.” He nodded.
“That's alright! Because I've got a plan. See, when you get back up you'll have everyone distracted; that's when I'll go into the kitchen and sneak some candy! And I'll share some with you two, of course.”
"Hack, you shouldn't steal candy.” Sheena playful chidded, giggling to herself. “We can just ask politely. I'm sure everyone will understand.”
“Aww, but that's no fun.” He pouted in response, turning to face the side and crossing his arms.
“If it's alright, I think I'd rather just lay down for a little bit. I've got a headache I'd like to just sleep off.” Britz smiled sheepishly.
“That's alright, we'll get you a bed in the dormitory. Hopefully you'll feel better soon." Sheena purred, and Hack nodded. The two of them led Britz back onto the elevator platform.
As the elevator started back up, the older caninu felt his mind clear. He took one last glance at the Soul Cannon hallway, before the bottom floor disappeared from sight. It had lost its allure, for the time being. He was sure it would return. But for a moment, as he watched Hack pace about while telling Sheena another scheme of his, as she leaned against his shoulder, it had completely lost its luster.