The Jeager Project

Ch. 07: 8S's Story/Casualty

"DESTRUCTION OF THE CENTRAL UNITS OF THE ENEMY NETWORK, ADAM AND EVE—CONFIRMED. Currently there is disorder in the enemy government. Making use of this opportunity, the human forces have called for a full-scale attack on the Machines. Of course, we JeaGer squadron troopers are to cooperate as well." Out of the corner of his eye, 8S stared at the commander's face projected on Pod's communication display while he walked along the city ruins. A twig he stepped on produced a dry crack as it split. "Remember! The pain of having your home taken away!" It's not like my home was taken away, 8S replied in his head. The JeaGer androids were manufactured in orbit, not on Earth. But the commander had not specified whose homes had been taken away. It didn't have to be explained to the other troops, as he was probably the only one who thought this way. The subject, in this case, was "humanity," and not "us." It was clever wordplay. It made you feel as if you had to fight, if you were fighting for "humanity's pain of having their home taken away." It made you feel like you had to act for humanity. That's how androids were programmed. "We will not give up! We will take back what the Machines took from us—the ocean, the sky, and the land!" This was where the subject "we" came up. The words "we will not give up" were built on the feelings of obligation toward humanity and its "pain." It made you feel that you could fight until the end for humanity's sake. It was a textbook example of a speech to raise morale within the force. He slightly hated himself for thinking this way. And he was a little bitter toward the commander, who had given him the freedom to choose. Talk about asking the wrong person. He couldn't believe it when he was told to make his own decision. There had been no punishment, even after he had confessed to accessing the main server without authorization. 8S had come across a small noise while syncing his and 3R's battle data with the main server's data. Unable to ignore the kink, 8S decided to investigate the main server. He hadn't ignored the issue and carried on, because recently he had been noticing some type of presence. A feeling of being watched, or that something was nearby. But it was such a minute presence that it was easily dismissible as a trick of the mind. He had felt the presence for the first time in the server control room. As if someone were staring at the display over his shoulder while he was working. But Operator 21O had come in immediately after, so 8S had thought it was her presence and had forgotten about it. Next was at the hangar. He felt as though he was being observed from behind a pillar while entering a flight unit. But it had been an emergency dispatch, so he didn't have time to check. After returning he had investigated the hangar, but come up empty-handed. In other words, a Type S had not been able to definitively detect the presence, even with its scanning capabilities. That was why, no matter how insignificant, he was reluctant to pass off

anything that remotely resembled noise. As a result, he was unable to identify the true nature of the noise, but instead uncovered an unbelievable secret. The commander had told him that humans no longer existed. This happened when the commander summoned him after his unauthorized access to the main server was discovered. It was an opportune summons for 8S as well. He wanted to ask questions, away from the other troopers and their prying ears. Why were the plans for establishing the human board on the moon contained in the JeaGer project? It would have made more sense for the JeaGer project to be contained in the plans for establishing the human board. Humans had been responsible for the creation of JeaGer androids, and humans had proposed the JeaGer project. It was certainly suspicious that the establishment of the human board was outlined in the JeaGer project. That made it seem like the commander had created the human board. The commander coolly confirmed his doubts. 8S was right, androids had been responsible for installing the human board server on the moon. Furthermore, humans had already been extinct by the time aliens had invaded the Earth. The only thing shipped to the moon was humanity's genetic profile data. 8S remembered hearing his own voice, sounding as if it were coming from far away, ask why they had done such a thing. But strangely, the commander's words sounded clear as they reverberated in his ears. "There's not a single being that can fight without reason. We needed a god to devote our lives to." She handed 8S a chip with all the relevant information. She told him to decide what to do with it, and promptly left.