Last [E]xecution

The Scorpion and the Frog Part II

So much death.

So much destruction.

2E stood in the center of a massive quarry. The machines had dug it out with several far-reaching tunnels. And strewn across the ground were androids.

Dead androids by the hundreds...

Thousands...

No YorHa androids since they bordered on impossible to capture but plenty of resistance androids.

This is where machines had androids work to death mining ore from the ground.

There was one issue. How can thinking, feeling androids perform better than unthinking automated excavators? And they don't. The machines had plenty of unthinking excavators and miners that perform thousands of times better than an android. The mined ore was just a side benefit. The purpose of this forsaken place was to kill androids in the most torturous way possible.

Even now, 2E was finding barely-alive androids and putting them out of their misery.

2E jumped when she felt a hand grab her leg. She looked down to see another living android. His eyes had long since shut down and the chassis that made his face was beginning to fall off. He opened his mouth to speak but only static left his throat.

2E didn't know if this was a cry to save him or put him out of his misery. It didn't matter. This was her purpose and it was time for the cycle to begin again. She raised her blade and thrust it through his back. And a few moments later, 2E could feel the EM field die down. The android was dead.

"May death give you the peace that life did not," 2E said quietly.

This was a grizzly sight. She was literally knee deep in the dead. It was a slaughter that could outdo even her.

2E continued probing the dead when she sensed it. Something had come out of the sky behind her. She ducked down just in time as a blade cleaved just above her head.

This machine, she hasn't seen this particular model in a long time. A small quadruped. It bore some resemblance to the medium models because of their bladed limbs. But the body looked like two small bipeds had fused their bodies together. A pill shaped body with heads on either side and bladed limbs. Its top was as much its bottom as its bottom was its top. Its back was its front as much as its front was its back.

2E danced backwards, avoiding the blinding flurry of strikes. It flipped. It turned. It rolled. No matter what it did, its shape meant it was always standing upright. Its arms spun around its body like a buzzsaw and it was always ready to attack at another angle. It even pulled the medium quadruped trick, pinning its entire body like a giant wheel of death.

Damn, this thing was fast. Small quadrupeds often served as machine assassins. They certainly had the speed and agility for it. In the time it takes to blink, this thing could make laps around the quarry.

Unfortunately for it, she could too.

After several minutes of the two of them streaking across the land like bouncing beams of light, 2E finally rushed in, plunging her sword into the machine and shoving it to the ground. As she pole vaulted over, she tore her sword out and cleaved the machine in half.

Game over...

2E landed on the ground, staring down at the machine as it struggled to move.

"Damn it," he cursed. Its spherical head rotated as if it were searching for something. Finally, it noticed 2E was still standing not far away. "What are you waiting for? Finish me. Kill me coward!"