[FT/Fantasy] [2070] We Are Not Free.

The air was bitter and clouded in mist, the road ahead could barely be seen for more than a few metres and the seemingly torrential rain did not help visibility. The people around me appeared to be like zombies, they walked ahead mindlessly in one large group and ignored both the awful weather and all that occurred around their proximity. Still, they walked forward to whatever place of damnation and torture the government wished. To the common man, the sight of such migration would strike fear into their hearts but to the men and women of Cronaal this was common sight, assuming they could even see at all.

At the advance of the crowd walked a thirty-foot, steel android which stood rather precariously. Hundreds, possibly even thousands, of thick, ponderous wires stretched from the skulls of each person and into the torso of the metallic beast. A large, cumbersome headset with a small red light on the front-end, these sat on the head of each and every person in not just the crowd, but almost the entirety of Cronaal. When wearing the headsets, the poor souls had no independence or free-will with their bodies, forced to do whatever the government communicated into their brains through the android and complicated signals. I, and all those around me, were those who'd lost all sense of consciousness, individualism to the hands of technology and the paranoia of the government.

If a headset were to be disconnected from the human skull in any form, the wearer would die. If you try to resist the government and the androids, you will be dealt with. If you... These were the things that the strange men told us, drilled into our minds as they tied their victims to damning metal tables so they could put strange pieces of metal into our flesh, and steal our consciousness and senses with headsets that burrowed into our skulls. This was only ten years ago, only a decade. Since then, the government had spread their metal parasites, the headsets, to almost every single person in Cronaal and leaving no one soul safe and connecting almost seventy million people to their androids.
Aside from the androids, there also stood colossal Data Centres. These unimaginably huge structures jutted out of cities and countryside alike, harvesting millions of terabytes of data from computers, security technology and human brains each day. They glowed red in the hallowing night, they guarded consciousness that was stolen from humans themselves and acted as control centres where government minions, also mindless and weak, controlled those like them, leading them into places of torture, forced labour, even human experimentation.

There was no resistance, nor a hope to free the victims of the Cronaal paranoia.
And nobody knew why.

The red light on my headset began to fade and become dim. For most, this would be where their life ends; where their brain gets torn apart by the claws that'd burrowed into their skull suddenly retract, pulling parts of their brain out with them. I appeared to be an anomaly in this trend, my headset had barely burrowed into my skull, only enough to not fall off, resulting in a distinct lack of my premature death. Soon enough, I was able to lift the cumbersome box off of my head and could see for the first time in almost a decade. I didn't know this however and it seemed like I'd been pinned to a table and fed drugs only a few minutes ago.

After standing around for several minutes, trying to take in the gravity of my situation, I sprinted into the unkempt countryside that surrounded me in all directions. My emotions were amok, I felt absolutely terrified. On a whim, I looked behind myself and spotted the face of the android that had led me forward for so many years, strange tube-like arms wrapped around the beast's torso and covered the hundreds of sockets. On the face of the android itself, it appeared to have two large eyes, the size of car tires, which were likely cameras and it also had an odd, exaggerated nose that protruded from its face for several feet as if it were added on to simply mock us.

At that same moment, I could swear the android turned its head to look at my direction, as if it were a sentient being rather than a mere robot. I simply pushed the thought into the back of my mind and continued running, trying to escape.

I know what I am. Constructed by the government, they call me a Scavenger; a biomechanical beast tasked with collecting Data. Our collective body of 100 thousand is made up of some like myself, biomechanical and sentient; others are dumb and fully mechanical. These dumber Scavengers are often tasked with extracting Data from the humans' old technology. The smarter ones, such as myself, get to drag the humans themselves. Data from their brains; their thoughts, emotions, memories - all of course suppressed by the headsets, leaving only the ability to walk. Rarely the ability to do other simple tasks, as some are needed to maintain the system.

I feel one disconnect. The cable dangles to the ground, abruptly ending the constant flow of Data.

Such an occurrence is not uncommon. Dragged by the cables connected to my torso; I supply them with nutrition, and they feed me their Data. Often they fade, a sign that they're spent, per se. They have nothing more to give. There is no need for such frivolous beings, so they are usually discarded.

One small link out of thousands. One would think that such a small, insignificant being would mean little to me. Usually it does.

This one is different.

This one wasn't done.

A couple of hours later I felt absolutely exhausted, so much so that I collapsed onto the ground and laid where I had fallen for several minutes. The air was still bitter, but it has since stopped raining once night befell the landscape around me. Whilst I lay, I attempted to take in what I'd discovered in such a short amount of time, I'd been connected to a giant robot for god-knows how long with my senses and consciousness taken from me, as was the same with likely millions of other people. Okay. I must sound insane.

Not even thirty seconds after I'd pushed myself up off the ground, a deafening, metallic groan filled my eardrums from a distance. My first instinct was to look in the direction I heard this noise, only to see one of the most haunting, disgusting sights imaginable. An android made of flesh.
The metal beast seemed to stand tall like a mountain in comparison to any of its other surroundings, its head alone was likely bigger than the average family home. Thick, extended pieces of flesh hung from the creature's neck, whilst large bulbs of stretched flesh protruded from its back and appeared to look as if they were about to burst. Within this mess of flesh and bone, thick wires pocked out for several metres before turning back inside the body, and on the gargantuan's face sat a large, red circle that acted like its one eye. One other notable feature was that the android walked on all fours, though its 'front legs' still appeared to be giant arms.

For reasons I could not remember, I chose to walk towards towards the gargantuan. Between me and the beast sat a small forest and a couple of abandoned buildings, homes where people had been dragged out and shoved in vans to simply become slaves to technology.

Steel. Flesh. Cold. Sensation. Alive. I am... thinking. I. What is I? What am I? Self. I have a... self. My... self. Anomaly. Flesh. Steel. Both. Not... human. Not machine. Both. Protocols. None. Memories. What are memories? Pain. Burning. Steel. Wires. Memory. I have a... memory. More pain, more steel. Bright light. Steel ceiling. There were... humans. With blades in their hands. Anomaly. Artificial. Yes. Both. Steel... and flesh.

Movement. I can move. Surroundings? Not steel, but bright light. Ground. Sky. Outside. Where? Unknown. Mountains. Sky. Snow. Cold. Not pain. Move more. Impeded. Not pain. Impeded in... my flesh. Not steel. No sensation from steel. Steel... is not alive. Move more. Impedance lessens. That... is good. Good. Beneficial. To... me. Self. Must remember self. Memory. No memory of self.

Sensation. Movement. Inside... me. Flesh. Moves. But steel... also moves. With the flesh. Move... together. Anomaly. More movement. No impedance now. Control. I have... control.

I scanned the environment frantically. How could it have gotten away? They aren't supposed to. They can't. Yet, somehow...

Stay calm, I think to myself. There's a better way to handle this. No need to panic.

I first send a probe to track the subject. These sensor drones are usually used to point out potential Data sources in small buildings and other places where a Scavenger usually can't reach. Equipped with optical sensors and mach 2 mobility in the lower atmosphere, I hope that this recon drone will be able to track the subject down.

The next part of the plan was significantly more risky.There is no mercy in the government. Even if a Scavenger falls out of line, they take will necessary action. Opening up a direct link to the Minister of Intel has, multiple times, resulted in the immediate termination of Scavenger and worker alike.

So I do exactly that.

Let's hope this doesn't get me killed...

A small tool the size of a human child's fist skittered about. Its stick-thin legs hopped forward in the snow and left dainty marks in the thick white. Then, without warning, it jumped up and fluttered its wood-colored wings. Soaring into the air, the thing landed on the black skeleton of a tree branch. Then it sat, and looked.

On the outside, the thing resembled a bird. Several shades of ink-black and wood-brown marred its feathers like different colors of paint. At the fore, the bird wore a black beak and black feathers that surrounded its eyes, like a mask of night-sky black. A sparrow. Tiny, seed-like eyes embedded themselves in the head of this sparrow, black glass that could hardly be seen. Those eyes scanned and recorded the landscape of desolate white earth and black trees, for any signs of life.

The sparrow made no sound except for the soft flutter of its wings as it jumped from branch to branch. It had no need to mate, or find companionship, or to even find food. It scoured the dead landscape not for insects but a different kind of pest...