E.I.G.H.T

Just like that my entire existence had changed. My father had asked me if I understood what he meant. I knew full well what he meant, he wanted me to dispose of Zephyr, I understood why. As an android I had no emotions (or so I believed), nor did I have an attachment to this man named Zephyr and I would have no choice but to execute my orders once programmed. I agreed to the programming and began my journey to locate and eliminate Zephyr.

My program was simple:

1.Locate Zephyr Ezekiel Platinumus

2.Infiltrate Zephyr’s splinter cell

3.Eliminate Zephyr Ezekiel Platinumus

4.Eliminate splinter cell

In addition to this I was programed with new subroutines. The file was codenamed “Percy” files. This was a download of certain mannerism that Persephone was always doing. Included in this file was the following:

1.The way she fixed her hair

2.The way she dressed

3.The way she said certain words

4.Her overall studies to this point

5.The certain ways she ate food.

I had never noticed until I received this download that she had 783 different ways she said different words, 264 different ways she ate different foods, 87 different ways she would stylize her hair, and around 900 different ways she would dress. I was admittingly impressed that my sister ended up being such a complex person.

The point of this download, as my father put it, was to “act more like a Golordian Female.” Per my father I was a bit too cold, too robotic and to adroit to pass as a young Golordian female. When I pointed out I was a robot my father laughed and said that therefore he downloaded this new program, so I would not act like a robot.

After I received this program I noticed I began to act different. I began to sudden interest in my appearance. I could not decide between the 87 different ways that I had programmed as possible ways that Persephone would style her hair, and it took me nearly 0045 hours to determine what to wear.

My task at locating Zephyr began the next day. It was a bit harder than I thought it would be initially to find Zephyr. It was like chasing a ghost, or at least that was how Persephone would put it. I even found myself saying that when I hit another dead end. I had paused and thought what I had said I dismissed it as the program working too well.

Zephyr covered his tracks well for a man who was almost always in the limelight. He often went to rallies, meetings, and even interviews and somehow, I always seemed too late to interact with him, as if he was there seconds prior to I, and yet no one knew where he had gone.

Today however I finally caught a break:

It was in the form of Albreicht Browne, one of the generals who had joined forces to form the Coups D’état. The basic biography of Albreicht Browne was that he was a legendary Golordian General. He had led the first battalion of the Golordian Empire against the invading creatures known as the Zhiran. He had become known for his ferociousness, attacking with a strong offense that would overwhelm those who opposed him, he did it with such ferocity that he became known as The Bear of Golordia.

From descriptions I have of this creature known as a bear, I would have to concur that this name does in fact suit Albreicht Browne. Standing at nearly 3 meters tall Albreicht was one of the tallest male Golordians ever recorded. Albreicht’s recorded weight was over 1600 kilograms, with estimates ranging between 1900 to 2900 kilograms of pressure he can exert when punching at something. Indeed, worthy of the name of The Bear.

Even though my subroutines were already postulating and extrapolating the size and stature of this being when I met him I realized my extrapolations were incorrect. The Bear was truly worthy of the name.

My subroutine postulates were grossly underestimating the size and the girth of this man that is codenamed the bear. He was quite the sight to be seen, he towered far and beyond any other male that I have ever seen even those around him who were tall were dwarfed by the bear’s sheer size. Unlike Zephyr who was like a ghost, the Bear was anything but he was hard not to see.

I had heard of this rally, one that took place in the parts of the Ides of Rho that was called the Valley of the Ides. This was this very thick thicket and valley on the southern end of the Ides of Rho. Consisting mostly of this flora that was called Rhoatia (a plant only found on Rho) it was easy to see why the defectors had chosen this valley to have their meetings and things of that nature.

This thicket was also hard to get through in fact even though I had extremely sensitive scans. I was caught on a snare. I lay hanging upside down a side of this giant Rhoatia by my ankle before I knew it.

“Ye ’ave to be more careful little girl,” a voice said as I dangled upside down. The thought someone had been there watching me even though I had extremely sensitive scanning equipment shocked me. What shocked me even more was my voice recognition subroutines knew it was General Albreicht Browne, the man known as the Bear.

A man came out of the thicket like a wolf out of its den. The thicket was thick and brown and extremely tall. It was easy for even a man such as the Bear to hide in it. Especially when I saw that this name really suited him. He had grizzly brown hair in his head that had streaks of white in it, he had his forearms and hands mostly covered in the same grizzly brown hair. He had a thick grizzly brown beard and round dark brown eyes that looked at me blinking expectantly.

“Hey Mr. Teddy you mind letting me down,” I stated this in my most Persephone-like manner. I knew that my sister would address this man as this, he did seem like a giant stuffed bear.

“Mr. Teddy?” The man said smiling but it looked like he was taken aback by my statement. “What ’re ye doing out ’ere little girl?”

“I was looking for the rebellion meeting,” I said fairly honestly. At this point I did not see the point at making a ruse as to why I was there in the first place.

“Now why would a little girl want to find the rebellion,” the man said.

“All have you know Mr. Teddy I am a young adolescent female, I just turned 28 the other day.” I used my sister’s age when saying this.

“Geez, Zephyr’s barely older than ye I guess yer an okay girl,” the man said as he pulled out a knife and cut the rope holding onto me slowly. “Brace yourself.”

I did and I managed to land softly. After scanning my skin for tears I looked back up at the man known as the Bear as he put his knife away in his front pocket.

“So why are you looking for the rebellion for?” The Bear said.

“Well, Mr. Teddy, I thought it was fairly obvious I wanted to join you.” I said simply. I decided to go this route, I needed to get close especially closer to Zephyr if I were able to ever eliminate him as a threat.

“I see, kids these days seem to be following Zephyr like a flock of sheep.” The Bear sighed.

“Except for if he is truly trying to be a Sheppard, he is kind of hard to track down,” I said. I quickly realized I shouldn’t have said that.

“You’ve been tracking Zephyr?” The Bear said raising his furry right eyebrow in an arch-like manner.

“Only because I wanted to join him,” I said holding my hands up nervously. I realized that it was my error comparing him to a Sheppard that was hard to find. This was implying I had been searching for him for a while.

“I see,” the Bear said. “Well you’re in luck it just so happens our camp is about 20 klicks north.”

That term klick was a military jargon. It was an informal way of saying Kilometer. I am uncertain why this term came about. Perhaps it was because at some point military personnel used to measure out their travels and every kilometer they would click a device to record that they had traveled a kilometer.

“Can you take me there?” I asked.

“Very well,” the Bear said as he began disappearing in the thicket again. I quickly followed worried he would disappear in the thicket if I had not done this.