Clone Girls

Screams echoed through the rocky hill as bursts of laser beams flew all over the place. A group of soldiers in gray uniforms were trying to advance towards a makeshift fortification on a rocky hill. Most of them were being killed by a machine gun that the republicans had positioned there.

"Where’s our support!?" A man shouted as his comrade next to him died from the machine gun’s fire. Just as he asked this, a hoverer tank took position to the side. The laser turret of the hoverer tank then targeted the republican makeshift defenses, and fired.

*Boom*

The barrage of laser beams ceased as the Ionians’ defensive position was blown into the air. Cheers erupted from the Borkians as they rushed at the now defenseless position.

"Took them long enough." Said David Fika as he put down his binoculars. The general and his suite were observing the progress of the assault from a tower inside the temporary camp his men had built. He and his troops were confronting the republicans in the East. David had sent his men in a human wave with no care for the losses. He only had one objective, and that was to secure the area.

"This was the last republican defensive position in the East, General." One of his aides said.

"It’s a good thing they left this side too undefended. Now we can focus on our real mission." David said, drinking some tea from his cup. Of course, David was talking about the facility. While the abandoned facility was protected by drones, David and his men had already studied them. He had established countermeasures that made the drones easier to deal with. Still, it was strange to him that those drones could still take out entire squads, if not more within a single day.

If David managed to secure the facility for the Borkian confederation, he was promised a promotion. This would help him in strengthening his position and advancing on his project to become the president of the confederation. Besides, he also had another plan. He could keep the facility for himself as a bargaining chip to gain even more influence! He himself did not know what was inside, but his superiors had ordered him to secure and explore the location at all cost. The faster, the better.

In any case, he wasn’t that worried about his losses. He already had found a good scapegoat to receive all the critics and the blame: Lieutenant-General Rika Doesson.

It’s a pity, her face has become so ugly because of that scar.

He remembered the past when he was still in the military academy. He had seen the black haired young woman and wanted to court her as his possible bride. But before he could do so, she had already been affiliated to a regiment and left soon after.

"Tell our troops to begin the search for the entrance."

"Understood." His communication officer immediately began fiddling with his radio.

*pshhhhhh*

"Huh?" However, there seemed to be a problem, the radio only made inaudible noises. It was puzzling, since the radio was one of the most modern the Borkian confederation had. It never did that before.

Just as he was about to change the radio, an explosion was heard.

"What was that?!" David exclaimed. He saw smoke in the direction he was just looking at. "!!!???" He then took his binoculars again and looked at the situation.

The first thing he saw was the burning carcass of the tank.

"Ho-hoverer tank down!" Signaled one of his aides who was also looking over with his own binoculars, causing confusion from their entourage.

"Contact them! Ask them what is happening now!" Someone exclaimed to the communication officer.

"C-can’t! The radio is jammed!"

"What!?"

"General, what should we do!?"

David did not answer his panicking subordinates who did not even propose to send reinforcements. He just looked through his binoculars, searching for the reason for the chaos. He saw laser beams coming from behind a boulder, taking down the Borkian soldiers.

"There’s someone attacking us…" He said. Is it a republican commando unit? But our intel did not mention the presence of the Ionian republic special forces though… I need more info… He kept his binoculars pointed at the boulder, hoping to find out more.

And find out more he did. The person shooting his soldiers revealed itself as it changed position for cover.

"!?"

It was a woman wearing an armored suit of a model he had never seen before. From what he could see on the white armor, there was no emblem whatsoever that could help identify it. A puzzling fact, as all nations always made sure that the emblem would appear on an armored skinsuit. Armored skin suits were a pride to the nation. They were not that rare so to say, but their quality varied depending on its materials. It usually served as one of the most advanced means of war and came with a large variety of use and customisation. This model however did not resemble any designs David had seen before, maybe it was just a new design kept secret? He did not know, but he made sure that his binoculars were recording the woman as she was taking down the remaining men like a leisure walk in the park.

"...Bring our most skilled sniper."

"General?" The man next to him asked.

"Bring our most competent sniper! Right now!"

"Y-yes!" The man rushed out, going down the stairs in a hurry.

David continued to observe the woman in an armored suit as she mercilessly killed the last soldiers. He wanted to eliminate her and then collect her armor. If this new design could be studied and then used against their enemies, it would bring David more fame. As the firing stopped, the woman came out of her hiding spot. She then began to kill the wounded on the ground. David did not care about these men’s lives. Right now, he only cared about the fact that the woman was still there. It was at this moment that his lackey came back with a soldier following him.

"Your orders, sir?" The soldier said.

"Soldier, take a shot at this enemy." David said, not even bothering to look at the man.

The soldier only nodded and prepared his material, not even questioning the order. He was one of the elite men David had brought with him, and his loyalty was unquestionable. The man took out a long rifle with a big barrel. It was a Gauss rifle. This rifle was so powerful that it could even pierce tank armor, in fact, it was recognised as an anti-tank rifle rather than a sniper rifle. While bringing out this type of gun could be considered an overkill, David did not care. So long as the target was incapacitated, there wouldn’t be a problem.

The soldier took position and aimed his rifle. There was a moment of silence on the observation platform as the soldier identified his target and waited for the opportunity to strike. In that time, the only thing that could be heard was the gulps of some officers, who were not used to tense atmospheres like that.

Finally, the opportunity came as the woman relaxed herself after killing the last soldier.

*Bang*

The soldier took his chance, and his bullet reached its target, making it stagger.

"The target has been hit in the chest!" Signaled an officer. David could hear some officers releasing their tension with a sigh of relief. However, he knew it wasn’t over.

"...Unbelievable…" He said in shock. The woman had only staggered. That was all. There was a big impact on her chestplate, but it would seem the bullet had not penetrated it. This was unnusual, armored suits did not usually protect this much.

"Soldier! Switch to armor piercing ammunition and take a second shot!" David immediately yelled, startling the officers who thought everything was over. The soldier obeyed while David looked at the woman, seeing what her next move would be.

David thought the woman would take cover or even flee the area. But to his surprise, she did not. Instead, she looked straight in their direction. He had an ominous feeling when he saw her take out a rifle.

No way… she can’t reach us from where we are with a simple rifle… We’re too far, right?

It was as he thought this that the woman shot. David thought for a moment that she missed. After all, the distance was just too great. But then…

"Gaaaaaah!" He heard a scream. David put down his binoculars and looked around him. Searching for what happened, and he saw the sniper holding his shoulder in pain.

"!!!"

"G-get a medic! Now!"

"General! We should take cover!"

Panic and confusion took over the place. As David’s bodyguards tried to cover him. He took his binoculars a last time to observe the armored soldier who just performed this shot.

The woman, however, was nowhere to be seen.

 

***

 

"Ugh"  Ticia groaned in pain. The bullet embedded in her chestplate was still hot, its impact was so strong that it had cracked and blackened the shiny white armor plate. Still, Ticia was fine, if she were to believe the body check up function of the armor that is. It was just the force of the impact that startled her. That, and the fact that getting hit by a bullet was still painful, even with armor on.

"I got careless…" Ticia sighed as she took the elevator down to the fourth floor. She was going to take a medical checkup just in case.

She reflected on what happened just now. When she heard from A-4 that the Borkians were assaulting Ionian’s positions in the East, she immediately left to join the fray. She thought that she could eliminate both at the same time, and then pass more time with the clone girls after that. But never did she think the Borkians would set up a camp not far to observe the battle. Even A-4 did not know about its presence. Now the Borkians knew that somebody who wore an armored suit was in the area.

Normally, this would be unlikely to happen to her, but it seems that Ticia had grown overconfident since she got her armor. This overconfidence made her less aware of the danger, and this was the result.

"Fortunately, I acted after the Ionians were eliminated…" This was Ticia’s only salvation. The Borkians might have thought that she was an Ionian soldier, thus they would focus their research on that side. Her identity was still safe for the moment.

"But still, my new armor…" Ticia said bitterly as she looked at the blackened, cracked armor plate. "Now it’s damaged…"

"Notification: In case of damage to the armor, this unit has prepared replacement parts."

A-4 suddenly said to her. The drone had immediately come to her when she entered the base, doing a flurry of checks on Ticia to determine her state. This made Ticia smile bitterly, the AI was really worried about her.

"Is that so? It’s a good thing you did so, A-4…" The AI really thought of everything.

The elevator slowed down as they reached the third floor. Ticia sighed as she finally would be able to take off her armor. But her main train of thought was already on the clone girls. What kind of game would she play with them today? Ticia was just impatient to go meet them, but Ticia should have been more careful about what she wished for…

The door of the elevator slowly opened, and Ticia was about to walk out of the elevator, but she suddenly froze.

"Eh?"

""Eh?""

Just in front of her stood two clone girls, who also froze when they saw her.

"Bi-big sis?" One of them said, looking pale as she saw the state of Ticia’s armor.

"Oh… Uhm, hey there, Ria, Nicia…" Ticia said as buckets of sweats poured down her face. She has done it now! The two girls glanced at Ticia’s chestplate with tears in their eyes. The fear and worry were apparent on their faces. “Uhm, big sis is fine. Th-this is just a scratch big sis got while doing her job…” Ticia blurted out in a panic.

""..."" The look on Ria and Nicia’s face did not change. Of course they would stay like that! Gah! What kind of excuse was that? Ticia was embarrassed after seeing their reaction. They stayed in this awkward silence for a while. Until Ticia let out a groan. The pain from the impact was still there.

""!!!"" The two clone girls reacted to Ticia’s groan. Nicia then grabbed Ticia’s hand.

"Big sis! Let’s go to the infirmary! We need to heal you!"

"I-I’m fine, Nicia, no need to hurry. We can go slowly, ok?"

"No! We’re going there now!" Nicia answered back. She then started pulling Ticia by the arm. Ticia let herself be pulled, but she was a bit surprised. Ever since she was born, Nicia had been the quiet type. Just like Ria, she had a calm and mature demeanor. Nicia’s demeanor reminded Ticia of Rika when the latter acted as an aristocratic lady. Nicia even took a liking to drinking tea with Ria recently. Nicia’s noble-like appearance was accentuated by the hairstyle she chose. She had straight long hair with a clear forehead and one braid on each side of her head. Those two braids were attached together at the back of her head. 

Yet here was Nicia, acting childishly because she thought Ticia was injured. Ticia did not know if she should be happy or sad.

Since even Ria continued to give her worried glances, Ticia decided that she should do as they said. It was what she was going to do anyway…

 

***

 

Nicia stared at the screen in front of her.

She made sure to reread what the screen was displaying at least three times before finally looking away.

Nicia had a normal, fulfilling day today. In the morning, she ate breakfast with everyone, then trained with her ‘big sis’. After lunch, she had tea with Ria. Her ‘big sis’ was supposed to join them as she promised, but unfortunately, Ticia had to go back on her words because of her work. Nicia was a bit sad, but understood the importance of work from her implanted knowledge. And although Ticia had stayed quiet about it, she had a feeling that what her ‘big sis’ did for work was something dangerous. Still, she believed her ‘big sis’ would never get hurt. After all, she had seen how amazing she was during training time.

But her expectations were shattered when she and Ria met Ticia by coincidence. Nicia and Ria had just finished playing together, like they usually did, when they found Ticia coming out of the elevator cage. Nicia instantly knew that something had happened when she saw the state of the armor her ‘big sis’ was so proud of. More than that, Ticia’s facial expression told her she was in pain! The person Nicia thought as invincible had been hurt! Something snapped inside her, and the image of herself she had built shattered. She clinged to her ‘big sis’ with tears in her eyes and refused to let go until Ticia did a health check in front of her. As if to console her, Ticia had been patting her head, repeating the words “I’m fine”, despite small grimaces appearing on her face from time to time, showing the contrary.

After the health check’s result, Ticia made Ria and Nicia promise to not say anything to the others. She then left to change herself while Nicia was still focused on the results of the analysis.

"Where is sister?" She looked around. She was alone in the room, Ria, who should have also been present, was nowhere to be seen.

She’s probably at the entrance of the changing room, waiting for ‘big sis’ to finish changing. Nicia knew Ria was as worried as her about Ticia’s state. She moved to the entrance, but then stopped as she overheard a conversation.

"Big sis, what were you doing outside?" Ria had asked Ticia what all the clone girls wanted to know.

Despite caring for them, Ticia did not speak a lot about herself or her past. Ticia knew a lot about the clone girls as their ‘big sis’, but the clone girls knew nothing about Ticia…

"What was I doing? Of course, big sis was doing some cleaning!" That was Ticia’s usual answer when asked about what she did outside. The clone girls did not usually question more, but this time, Ria would have none of that.

"If you don’t tell me, I’m gonna tell everyone that you got hurt!" Ria suddenly yelled.

"Eh, But what about our promise, are you gonna break it?"

"Those are just words! What I care about is you, big sis!" Ria suddenly let out those words in a voice that was close to crying, startling Nicia. "We all care about you big sis, what are we gonna do if something happens to you…"

Nicia knew her sister was the most active in conversing with Ticia, and Ticia seemed to trust her the most with responsibilities. She knew Ria took her role as a caring sister very seriously. Out of all the clone girls she was most likely the one who asked the most mature. She would never make a childish fuss like this normally. But it seems that, just like Nicia, Ria had reached her breaking point.

"Ria…" From Ticia’s voice, Nicia understood that Ticia had reached the same conclusion as her. "... I understand. I will tell you…"

There was a moment of silence, Nicia did not know what was happening since she stuck to the wall near the opened door. She just held her breath, she did not want to be noticed and ruin her sister’s chance to learn more about their ‘big sis’. Instead, she listened quietly.

"...You see, Ria." Ticia began to tell. "Outside, there are bad people all around us."

"Bad people? Bad how? What did they do?" Ria said. Right now, she was not reasoning, she stayed childish in her way of asking questions..

"Those people want to take our home."

"Eh? But why?"

"Because they think this place is abandoned."

"Abandoned? B-but we live here, it’s not abandoned, it’s ours! Why don’t you say this to them?" 

"We can’t, they won't accept it, rather, they might try to kill or capture us…"

"Why would they do that?"

"Because they want to use our home’s facilities for their own power games. I’m sure of it."

"You mean the cloning facility?"

"Yes, that’s why I must keep them away… Do you understand, Ria?"

"Yes…" Ria weakly answered. "But do you have to do it alone? Aren’t we training so that we can help you?"

Ticia laughed.  "Fufu. I’m not alone, I have A-4 with me. And no, you girls are still too young to go outside… Right now, you won’t be of any help."

"I see… I understand, big sis. Thank you for telling me…" Ria said. "Can I… Get a hug from you, big sis?"

"Of course, dear, anytime." Ticia answered, and Nicia assumed the two of them were hugging each other right now. Nicia slowly slid against the wall until her butt reached the floor. Somehow, Ticia had yet to detect her presence.

So that’s the reason ‘big sis’ was hurt. The people outside… She wants to protect us from them… Nicia stayed there, not moving, just digesting what she just heard. Her ‘big sis’ had been protecting them all this time. She did not say anything to them so they did not have to worry. She bared it all on her shoulders. 

Nicia did not like that. She wanted to help her ‘big sis’. This was part of their raison d’etre. Something that had been ingrained in their brain since before they were born. Some of the clone girls had chosen to forget about it since Ticia did not seem to want their help, but Nicia wasn’t part of those clone girls. Ever since she had first crossed eyes with Ticia, she wanted to be useful to her. And she was sure Ria was the same. That was the reason why the both of them were on such good terms. 

Compared to her sisters, Nicia was not the best when it came to training, still, if she could not yet help Ticia on the field, she would find something else to do to help her. She looked again at the equipment within the infirmary, and her eyes lit up with determination.

Whether you want it or not, I will help you one way or another, ‘Mother’.