Clone Girls

At night, within the headquarters of the Borkian military in sector B7-45, all was quiet.

Most of the soldiers in the camp had gone to sleep, and only some lights were on for those on guard duty. Inside a dimly lit room within the main building, David Fika sat on a chair, alone, looking at a hologram of an old man with a white beard and a bald head, sitting behind a luxurious desk. The man was holding a cigar, not one of those electric or synthetic ones that were widely spread, but a real cigar, one made from real plants grown naturally. The man wore a military uniform that did not have any decorations. It was simply a standard officer uniform of the Borkian Confederation. And yet, even though it was so plain and empty of decorations, the grade on the uniform clearly shouted that the man was of a higher grade than David.

“I am disappointed, David.” Said the man after puffing some smoke. “Not only did you not manage to enter the abandoned facility, you also failed at chasing the republicans away…”

“I am truly ashamed, Field Marshal.” Began David, not even looking at the eyes of the man. “It would seem that I underestimated the number of troops they would bring…”

“You sure did.” The man acquiesced. “The cabinet has even come to complain about the situation to me.”

David sweated profusely. Although the tone the man used was very casual, he had the power to eliminate David at any moment. Such was the power of Field Marshal Barry Twill, one of the three field marshals of the Borkian Confederation, and he was at the head of the whole Borkian army corp. This powerful old man was David’s backer and had helped him build up his reputation.

The Borkian Confederation was not a very united nation, it was very divided in fact. What kept it from collapsing was not the sense of belonging to a nation and the patriotism that could ensue from it, although some might think so. What kept it from collapsing was a very complicated knot of political accords and power shares between powerful factions. 

At the beginning, the Borkian Confederation was simply a loose alliance of strong families and their cliques, who had agreed to work together to stand a chance against the strong powers that surrounded them. As such, there was no loyalty to the state, but just a bunch of factions who clashed against one another for their own gains.

With such a system, the confederation should have been long gone, plunged into an endless civil war, or just broken into multiple little states. However, the strongest powers within the Borkian Confederation had come to a compromise to share the power between their factions, each occupying a high position. Added to this, a neutral faction, which had no other political goal other than to keep the nation united, made sure to either keep things in check or stay out of those power competitions. With this system, the Borkian confederation somehow managed not only to survive, but to become one of the major powers within the known galaxy! 

As for David, he was part of the Twill faction, whose head was Barry Twill.

“For now, I’ve just sent those men away, but this won’t last long.” Barry Twill said with a serious tone. “So do tell me, what is the reason this whole operation is taking so long to complete, even though I made sure to send two of our most powerful and reliable units.”

David gulped, should he tell just a single lie and his political life would be over. He had no intention to do so from the beginning, knowing the person he was facing, but the simple thought terrified the proud young man.

“As I have reported earlier, Field Marshal, the Ionian Republic seems to have sent in more troops than us. And from the reports I got directly from the front, they have begun to engage their Republican Commandos… As such, the generals in charge of the assault have decided to progress slowly and surely.”

“I see…” There was a moment of silence as the field marshal released another puff of smoke. “Who did you send against them?”

“I sent the neutrals, sir.”

“So the Old Devils huh? Good choice.” Barry said, a small smile creeping onto his face. “Not only are those elite soldiers capable of holding their ground against republican commandos, they don’t belong to any faction, so there’s no loss for us even if they die...”

This was very convenient to the field marshal. Knowing the importance of the site, no faction wanted the other one to take control of it. As such, a compromise was made to send the neutrals, who did not know anything, to the site. And as the chief of the army corp, Barry could send in troops as reinforcements. David only had to twist the truth a bit from the other officers to make himself the one in charge.

“I understand why the Republicans are still there, Berdo is capable, I trust his judgment, so don’t intervene. I’ll send one more unit as reinforcement. Now that we don’t have to be secretive about our movements anymore, they’ll arrive within three days’ time.” Barry said as he wrote something in a paper notebook.

“Uhm, Field Marshal…” David said hesitantly.

“Speak, David.” The old man said, still focused on whatever he was writing.

“What about Rika Doesson’s case?”

“General-Brigadier Doesson?” The field marshal stopped for a moment. Lost in thought. “Ah, right, the little girl.” He then smiled. “I’ve investigated it, and she has no link to the defectors whatsoever. Seems like it was just a coincidence.” Finishing writing, he put the notebook away, then sighed. “It’s such a shame that she is destined to die at the end of this operation… What a waste of good assets.”

Barry knew Rika’s record, he also knew her complicated relationship with her family. That was the reason why, after learning of her first achievements, he had backed up the young woman from the shadows with a nickname. This allowed him to use her to do some operations to strengthen his position in the back of all other factions. After all, the neutrals only moved for the good of the nation. It should be noted that Barry knew nothing about Ticia. Had he known, he would have done more to officially secure the loyalty of the two women.

But it was decided within the meeting between the factions that Rika would be used as the scapegoat to the defection, and the conflict that ensued, since the person behind the defection had yet to be discovered. As such, when the operation ended, she would be publicly executed and her brigade disbanded.

“Let’s not talk about this anymore.” Barry said, not wanting to speak further about such a loss of investment. “Why are you struggling to enter the abandoned facility?”

“About this, Field Marshal, I think you should watch this…” David said as he pushed a button. A video started to play, in it, Borkian troops were getting massacred by a person wearing a white armored suit.

“Hoh…” Barry’s eyes opened wide, his nonchalant look changed to a serious one. He studied the footage with a lot of attention. The video ended after that person took a shot to the chest, staggered, then shot back in the direction of the camera. He replayed it one time, pausing the video at a moment where the person was in plain sight, and zoomed in. There was one element of the video that caught his attention… "White hair… Interesting…”

“This is only one of the many times we found our troops exterminated in such a way…" Added David with a comment. "Not only that, multiple drones blocked our way, and most of our recon units had to enter a war of attrition with them before getting exterminated…” David said as he displayed multiple images of drones, most of them destroyed.

““...”” There was silence. The field marshall replayed the video again, analyzing it, then glancing at the images. He even stopped smoking, and David did not dare to interrupt his superior.

Then, after a while…"Could it be… " A short expression of surprise appeared on his face before… "Heh, hahahah!” Barry bursted out into an unstoppable laugh, surprising David. “It’s real! It’s really real! Those punks were right!”

“F-field Marshal?” David was confused by this sudden outburst.

“Hahaha…” Barry’s laugh finally came to an end. “Now I understand…” A fearless smile appeared on his face, which made David fearful.

“David”

“Yes, Field Marshal?”

“What do you think about this footage?” Barry asked as he put a new cigar into his mouth and lit it on.

“In my opinion, this is a new type of republican unit, equipped with last generation armored skinsuit.” David answered, confident about his theory. After all, it was what made the most sense to him. But the old field marshal just smirked at him.

“You’re wrong.”

“I’m sorry?”

“It’s not a new type of armor from the Ionian Republic, Those bastards are concentrating on producing power armors to equip their units, they couldn’t have come up with a new armored skinsuit design in the meantime.” David said as he extinguished his cigar. Power armors were a new concept of armor that had recently been developed. Although bulkier than armored skinsuit, they offered more protection and strength to its user. Still, those armors were rare, and not many had been produced in neither the Ionian Republic nor the Borkian Confederation.

“Th-then, if I may ask, who are they? Could it be… The Techno-empire of Philio?”

“Heh, it’s not the empire, those robotic punks are just watching the situation right now, and spies have reported they’re not going to make a move on this case.”

“Is that so…” David mumbled to himself, the Techno-empire of Philio was the only powerful state within the region who could make such an impact on the battlefield. There were other powers within the known galaxy, but they were too far to take action in this sector. As for independent systems or smaller nations that neighbored the Brelian system, they were either under the influence of the Borkian Confederation or the Ionian Republic, and would not dare to mingle in the two giants’ battle.

“It’s more important than that David… Those drones, this woman… and even this armored skinsuit… They’re the proof that what we’re searching for is right here.” Barry said, his eerie smile deepening. It took a moment for David to understand what his superior meant.

“Y-you mean…”

“Yes, the weapons that the president’s cabinet had been so adamant to find are there. We finally found the right place after all this time!” Barry exclaimed, this was the first time David had seen the old man so excited.

Another silence reigned in as the field marshal enjoyed his cigar. David swallowed his saliva, his greed was building up. Whatever wonder weapon was within this abandoned facility, its power was so big that the presidential cabinet, the political organ of decision of the Borkian Confederation, as well as the place where the most powerful and wealthiest people were gathered, had agreed to take control of the facility first before thinking of taking it for themselves. If he could pull his moves correctly…

“Don’t even think about it, David.” The old field marshal reprimanded him. It would seem that his greed showed on his face.

“I’m sorry, Field Marshal, I just-”

“I know, I know. I’m not saying it’s bad to have ambitions, quite the contrary in fact. If you didn’t have any, I wouldn’t support you in the next elections. But even if you take control of this facility for yourself, you wouldn’t get anything out of it anyway.”

“Eh? Why?” David could not understand why possessing a wonder weapon would be non beneficial to him, perhaps the old man was also planning to take it for himself? At least those were the thoughts passing David’s mind before his superior dropped a bombshell on him.

“Because it’s a clone facility.”

“Wha-!?” David was so shocked he did not know how to respond, he understood well what this meant. After all, even though cloning was officially banned, most powers were doing research on it. After all, if something is banned, then of course governments would want to further research in that domain! Seeing his expression, Barry smiled.

“Now you understand, right? The importance of getting this place intact.”

“Yes… But still, why can’t we take this facility for ourselves?” That was the only question left in David’s mind. By just taking over this clone facility and producing clones, his faction could easily gain the mannpower necessary to control the whole confederation.

“Well, you see David, there’s a very simple, yet very frustrating thing about those old clone facilities from the United Federal Government’s era…” Barry began telling. “In the past, we found an old installation. It was in a very bad state, but we still managed to salvage information about the cloning processes from it. Those collected databases certified that the cloning facilities can only clone people with a very specific genetic code… And among other things, it specifies that the genetic donor must have white hair, else the cloning process would fail. It just happens that those people are extremely rare to find…”

“White hair…” David mumbled, looking back at the video that was still paused on the woman that killed so many of his soldiers. Although not visible a lot because of the helmet, the woman’s hair was indeed white, albeit with some black mixed in… “Then, does it mean…”

“Yes, the resistance you’ve met for a while now seems to be from clones.” Barry finished David’s thoughts. “But I don’t think they belong to any faction, if so, the republicans would have already taken over. The most probable case is that they are leftover clones that the facility put out of cryo to defend its premise…”

“Cryo?” David frowned a bit, he knew what cryo was, but this was another of those technologies that had been long lost, and only persisted in collective memories through old tales.

“What a bother, really, even if their leader is dead, clones are loyal and will follow their last order until death…” Barry finished with a sigh. “Well, that’s basically all we know about those sites anyway, information is really scarce on those, but if we could somehow manage to learn this technology, and adapt it to our genes…”

“I see! I understand, Field Marshal! I’ll do my utmost in taking this facility as fast as possible!” David was reinvigorated by the words of the old man, who smiled at this. To Barry, David was a very useful pawn. He was intelligent and competent, but a bit too naive…

“Heh, glad to hear that, but this can wait. Now that we know for sure that this is the place we’ve been searching for, there is no need to rush like before and waste more resources. For now, focus on chasing those republican scums away from here, will you?”

“Will do! Long live the confederation!” David energetically shouted.

“Yes, yes, long live the confederation, and long live the Twills and the Fikas, hehehe…”

 

***

 

Meanwhile, not far away from the frontline located at the North of Clone installation 3, within a tent that served as a private bar for officers, two high ranked officers were sitting face to face, a table full of bottles of alcohol separating the both of them. And those were not full, in fact, a quarter of them had already been drunk!

“Phew, today was tiring too.” One of them, an old man still fit for combat, released a sigh after finishing the drink from his glass. He was none other than Major General Berdo Poltok.

“Tiring indeed, I still can’t believe the enemies sent out Republican Commandos…” His drinking buddy, Rika, replied as she put down her own glass, empty too.

“Bah, don’t talk about it! I lost thirteen armored vehicles because of those guys and a bunch of my men! Thank god your men were not far and chased them away!”

Right now, the both of them were enjoying a brief time of respite after a day full of packed action. Both Rika and Berdo were not officers who commanded behind a desk. Even though they had such a high grade, they preferred to lead their troops personally on the battlefield, and that had a massive effect on morale. But it was a very exhausting work, with a lot of mental burden, heavy responsibilities and dangers. As such, it was no surprise that the two of them would find comfort in drinking alcohol, and as luck would have it, they were both heavy drinkers.

“Still, I don’t understand how you manage to kill those bastards so easily with only light weapons.” Berdo said as he filled their glasses with a new alcohol, it was an old whiskey that came from his personal collection. He then began to fill Rika’s glass. “Care to enlighten this old man?”

“Of course,” answered Rika as she immediately gulped down her glass. When drinking, the both of them did not care about rank, they just considered the other as their drinking pal, and thanks to this, they had an easier time communicating and sharing their hearts. “The secret is just to overwhelm them and strike one point at once in quick succession.”

“Hah! Girl, you say it as if it’s an easy thing to do!” Berdo could not help but laugh, such a simple tactic was enough to destroy the elites the Ionian Republic was so proud of? Of course it wasn’t so easy!

“‘If you shoot them at least three times on the same spot within three seconds, those poor guys will fall down like insects in front of bug repellent!’... At least that’s what Ticia used to say.” Rika said with a wry smile, that was the very same sentence Ticia had used to explain to her how to deal with Republican Comandos, and she could only frown in frustration at that time for Ticia’s ineptitude at teaching through words. Geniuses really can’t teach… 

It was ridiculous to apply Ticia’s tactics to other soldiers, but Rika, after a lot of effort in translating Ticia’s words, somehow managed to adapt her subordinate’s methods to the rest of her brigade, and the results spoke for themselves.

“Heh, should I say, as expected from her? She truly is something on the battlefield, that girl…”

“Yes, it’s as if the whole battle becomes a choreography where she is the main actor.” Rika said with a wry smile, nostalgia was visible in her eyes.

“Hah! What an interesting way to describe it! But yeah, I can see that.” Berdo said as he heartily laughed, then drank his glass of whiskey. Still with his glass in hand, he pointed at Rika. “But you’re not one to talk, Rika, you take as much risk as that girl! You should be more careful, before charging head on. Or is it that you have a death wish?”

“I don’t think you’re one to talk, old man, are you sure somebody who is already this old should be on the frontline?” Rika replied with a grin of her own.

“Hah! Those old bones are still tough! They’ve yet to fail me!” Berdo laughed heartily again, the old man was very lively. 

Maybe that’s why everybody likes him… Rika wondered, and it was true that Berdo had managed to live this far into the Borkian military without having a backer, and also managed to stay away from most, if not all, political conflicts between factions. He was truly the most neutral officer within the armed forces…

“Jokes aside.” Berdo’s tone suddenly changed to a serious one. “Did you find any news about her?”

“Sadly, no… I couldn’t find anything…” Rika sadly said as Ticia’s face passed in her mind. Her mood took a turn, and as if to chase away those thoughts, she began to drink once again, finishing Berdo’s bottle of whiskey.

“That’s too bad…” Berdo said as he watched on, he wasn’t talking about the whiskey, although, seeing his prized collection diminish this fast might have had an effect on him. Hence, why he got up and announced. “Well, I think we should end this drinking session here, else I won’t have anything left in my collection.”

“Already? But we’ve just begun…” Rika said, looking at Berdo in disbelief, her face was already red, and there was no doubt she was drunk. Berdo could only sigh.

“Girl, I know you and Ticia drink quite a lot, but please spare me, we’ve already drunk enough alcohol to supply a whole battalion from my division for a whole week!”

“But…” Rika insisted, clinging to a bottle of red wine in front of her. Berdo’s gaze softened a bit, as Rika’s current actions reminded him of a child, but he still continued his sermon.

“No buts, who’s the elder there? If I say stop, then that’s enough.” He said, and a drone appeared and began cleaning the table, storing the bottles of alcohol away. Despite that, Rika pouted, not letting go of the bottle as if it was something precious. When she was drunk, she acted like she did when she was a kid, a spoiled little girl.

Berdo sighed again, he knew why she was like this, he’ll have to play the grandpa again… not that he disliked it. 

“... Let me tell you this as your senior in life, it’s not by sinking yourself into alcoholism that you will get a better chance at sleeping peacefully…”

“I know, but…”

“*sigh* Just look at the dark circles under your eyes…” Berdo pointed out. Despite having hidden her dark circles with some make-up, they were still visible. This showed how much Rika was exhausted. “Look, I know it’s difficult for you, and I probably don’t understand what is putting you into such a state, but there are better solutions than alcohol, alright?”

“... I understand, thank you for worrying about me, old man.” Rika said after some time.

“Hmph! I’m glad you understand.” Berdo was satisfied with this answer and was about to leave when...

“I’ll stop after another bottle of wine.”

“You-” Berdo held his words in his throat, then sighed, exasperated. “Fine, I tried, do whatever you want, this old man doesn’t care anymore, I’m going to get some well deserved sleep.” In the end, Rika was an adult, he was sure she would stop… Probably…

“...” Rika was left to drink alone after Berdo left. She was the only one left within the tent, as other officers had either gone to do night duties or had just gone to sleep. But it’s not like anybody would have approached her anyway.

Just where are you, Ticia? The lone woman asked herself as she filled her glass with wine. Finding Ticia's whereabouts had become an obsession to Rika.

With the nightmare waiting for her every night, she was slowly reaching the limits of her sanity. Until now, she managed to hold her image in front of her subordinates, but when she was left alone, her thoughts immediately went to Ticia’s whereabouts, and her mood turned sour.

It was when Rika was in such a depressed state that a voice came from behind her.

“Is this place free, Brigadier-General?”

Rika’s head immediately glanced over, she recognised the voice.

“Captain Rowla?” She asked, to which she received a nod. “Sure, you can sit there.”

“Thank you.” Captain Rowla sat where Berdo had been a while ago, then sighed. “This operation sure escalated, didn’t it?”

Captain Rowla and her cavalry company, who had been put in reserve, were called as reinforcements by Berdo because of the overwhelming number advantage the enemies had. Thanks to their equipment, her troops mainly served as a fast intervention force where the frontline was in danger of breaking. Today only, she and her troops had to move to three locations one after the other and without pause.

“Yes it did. Some wine?” Rika proposed, to which Captain Rowla nodded and raised an empty glass. The two drank in silence. It wasn't a silence of awkwardness, they were just enjoying this silence.

“It seems you are quite tired, Brigadier-General, are you alright?” Captain Rowla suddenly asked. “If you need to talk about something to someone, I can help you.”

“Thank you for worrying about me, but I’m fine.” Rika replied matter of factly, the alcohol did make her tipsy, but she wasn’t going to talk about her problems to some stranger. She brought the glass to her lips, but Captain Rowla’s next word made her stop her action.

“Are you sure you aren’t in this state because of what is going to happen to you after this mission?” Captain Rowla said with a serious face. “Brigadier-General, I know what’s going to happen to you, they made you their scapegoat. Only death awaits you after this operation, you know that don’t you?”

“...” Rika did not answer, her face became expressionless as this sudden talk made her sober.

“This is what’s worrying you, isn’t it?” Captain Rola said with confidence, but Rika did not respond again. 

You’re wrong, I don’t care about that right now. She thought. Rika wasn’t scared about death, even if it was by the hands of the nation she served. She always thought that she could not go back to civilian life anyway, and now that she was tormented by her nightmares over a broken promise, death seemed like a sweet alternative.

No, I can’t die, not until I know Ticia’s whereabouts. She reminded herself. She would first make sure of that, then she’ll plan something after that. Berdo had just put her on the side of the frontline closest to the abandoned facility, and she would use this as an excuse to search for Ticia personally.

“I can help you if you want…” Captain Rowla’s voice broke Rika out of her thoughts. It seems she had misunderstood Rika’s silence as an affirmation.

“...What do you mean?”

“My backer can help you avoid death, Brigadier-General.” Captain Rowla said in a low voice, as if she wanted no others to hear her. Rika’s eyes opened wide for a moment before giving a strange look at the person in front of her.

“Are you asking me to take a side?”

“No, not really.” Captain Rowla denied. “My backer and I are both part of the neutral faction.”

“...What do you want from me?” Rika asked wearily, her position within the neutral faction was put in doubt recently, so nobody would try to intervene in her fate. There had to be a catch.

“It’s simple, really, we just want your support. We plan on creating our own faction.” Captain Rowla whispered the last part into Rika’s ears, she then smiled at Rika. “I am saying this to you as a way to show our earnestness in getting you to join us. What do you think?”

“...Let me think about it…” Rika said after a small silence, right now, she didn’t want to do politics, she just wanted to find Ticia, and after getting some well deserved rest, maybe, just maybe, she would consider it.

“That’s fine.” Captain Rowla nodded, not reacting to Rika’s evasive answer. She stood up. “This offer lasts as long as you’re still alive, Brigadier-General, so when you make up your mind, come see me.”

Rika watched on as Captain Rowla left the tent. Another political faction huh? Sounds like trouble. She thought to herself as she watched her glass, still half full of wine.

“Maybe I should just go to bed…”