War-Maid: Chapter 6 (Patreon)

Year 4500, May 13, Morning

Beneath the Iron Graveyard's Military Base, Floor -7: Secret Laboratory, Diego's Room

The quiet warmth of the private room was a world away from the cold, violent metal corridors of the storage floor above. Sunlight didn't exist this deep underground, but the soft, ambient lighting of the quarters gently illuminated the bed where Diego slept soundly. He lay completely bare, his head resting comfortably against the pillowy softness of Valerie’s bountiful, naked chest.

Valerie remained awake, cradling him securely in her arms as she had done for the last several hours. Her chin rested lightly on his messy dark hair, her sapphire eyes glowing with a soft, steady radiance that was entirely full of complete devotion and love. Staring down at her operator, a happy sensation filled her processors. All she could think about was how incredibly adorable, and handsome her master looked when he wasn't worrying about surviving a dead world. Every small movement fascinated her, from the slight twitch of his eyebrows to the steady rise and fall of his chest. She quietly noted the way his messy dark hair constantly fell across his forehead, casting soft shadows over his closed eyes.

To Valerie, every single detail was precious, and a tender smile appeared on her face. Her internal systems had long since completed their post-synchronization diagnostics. Her energy reserves remained at an absolute one hundred percent, and her combat systems were functioning perfectly. There was absolutely nothing demanding her attention in the quiet base, which meant she could focus entirely on her favorite new activity: watching her Master.

"He is adorable," She quietly whispered to herself.

The thought alone caused the intricate interior circuitry inside her body to pulse and spark faintly with a warm, blue light. She imagined what the day ahead might bring as her thoughts drifted pleasantly. Perhaps they would continue exploring the upper floors of the citadel. Perhaps she could teach Diego more advanced firearm handling and combat techniques. Perhaps they could simply spend more time learning about each other, allowing her to ask him more questions about his life back in the year 2025. The endless possibilities filled her core with anticipation.

Unfortunately, her peaceful thoughts were suddenly shattered.

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

A loud, piercing sound blared directly from a wall speaker above the desk, ringing out in sharp bursts. It was an automated morning wake-up alarm, undoubtedly programmed into the quarters' sub-systems by G.O.D. to keep them on a strict military schedule.

Hearing the grating noise, Valerie’s expression instantly soured. A rare dissatisfied pout formed on her pretty lips. Her eyebrows knit together in annoyance as she deeply resented the intrusion, wanting nothing more than to continue watching her adorable master sleep in her embrace for a few more hours. If the speaker had been an active hostile target, it would have been targeted and vaporized immediately by Valerie's Sun-Eater.

A few moments later, it didn't take long for the persistent, annoying alarm to do its job. Diego stirred, letting out a groggy, highly irritable groan as his eyes cracked open. He pushed himself up slightly, rubbing his face with one hand while squinting against the sudden brightness of the room's light.

"Ugh... What the hell is that noise...? Make it stop..." Diego muttered, his voice thick with sleep and irritation as he glared blindly toward the wall speaker. He slowly rubbed his eyes, his crumpled expression carrying the pure suffering of someone who desperately wanted another hour of sleep.

Valerie found it incredibly cute. Without hesitation, seeing her master upset and angry, she immediately sought to soothe him. She shifted her weight, sliding her smooth arms around his waist and pulling him back down into a tight, comforting hug against her soft skin. She cuddled up right against his side, rubbing her warm naked body against his to brush away the morning chill while her soft voice purred near his ear.

"Good morning, Master," She murmured sweetly. “The planetary overseer has initiated a mandatory wake-up protocol for us. I believe G.O.D. requires our presence." She explained the situation smoothly, without a single hint of her previous annoyance.

The sudden, intimate contact of bare skin on skin quickly jolted Diego’s brain awake as he nearly jumped out of his skin. "W-Whoa!"

Valerie simply rested her chin gently against his shoulder as she gave his waist a reassuring squeeze. "I apologize for the sudden interruption."

Diego blinked several times, his vision finally clearing. Looking down, he realized the silver-haired War-Maid was draped completely naked over his chest. In the bright light, her spectacular, unclad figure was fully on display, making Diego have a full view of her abundant chest to her slender legs.

Memories from the previous evening returned all at once. The heat, the wild static, the breathless, intense rhythm of their full Bio-Sync flooded his mind all at once, causing his face to instantly turn a bright, roaring red.

"V-v-Valerie!" Diego stammered, scrambling backward on the mattress until his back hit the simple wall paneling. He quickly snatched a loose corner of the gray sheets, wrapping it around his waist while twisting his head away to avoid looking directly at her body.

Valerie tilted her head, watching his panicked reaction with a look of pure, affectionate amusement. The warm glow on her own pink cheeks deepened slightly as she sat up, entirely unbothered by her state of dress. "Is something wrong, Master?"

"It’s nothing!" Diego squeaked, his embarrassment only growing stronger when he heard Valerie's completely relaxed state and utter lack of self-consciousness. "We... we should probably get ready for the day!"

Valerie smiled softly. "Understood, Master. I will prepare myself for deployment," she replied with a graceful nod.

Swallowing his immense embarrassment, Diego kept his eyes carefully averted as they both slid out of the narrow bed.

The two quickly began preparing for the morning. The familiar black combat uniforms soon covered their sleeping attire with Valerie efficiently adjusting the sleek lines of her black suit, ensuring nothing looked out of place, while Diego stood in front of a nearby mirror, struggling to tame his messy hair. It was a battle he was rapidly losing. Several attempts later, his hair still stuck out wildly in every direction, and he finally sighed, giving up.

Valerie silently stepped up behind him. Without saying a word, her slender fingers reached out and gently smoothed down the worst of the cowlicks, fixing his hair with careful, practiced motions.

Diego blinked at her reflection in the glass, his throat tightening slightly. "...Thanks."

"You are welcome," She said, her voice filled with quiet joy.

For a brief moment, the room became entirely quiet. It was the kind of comfortable silence shared between two people who truly enjoyed each other's company.

Then, breaking the spell, Diego grabbed his combat jacket and pulled it over his shoulders. "Well." He took a deep, steadying breath. "Let's go see what G.O.D. wants."

Valerie immediately moved to his side, her posture straightening into a professional stance. "As you wish, Master."

Together, the two stepped through the doorway, leaving the safety of the room behind as the metallic door slid open. 

—----------------------------------------------

The metallic doors of Diego’s quarters hissed shut behind them, sealing with a pressurized click. As Diego and Valerie stepped out into the expansive common area of Floor -7, the sheer volume of noise hit them immediately. The secret laboratory had transformed overnight.

The once-quiet, sterile facility was now a chaotic hive of mechanical industry. Everywhere Diego looked, new automated units were bustling across the steel-grated floors and scaling the high-tech walls. The small, skittering spider droids they had seen yesterday were now joined by completely different mechanical models. Hovering gracefully through the air were strange, floating droids, with eight metallic limbs clicking and whirring as they rewired overhead circuits and adjusted hanging monitors. On the ground, bulky humanoid droids with blocky torsos and optical visors carried heavy crates of salvaged components, moving with synchronized, rhythmic footsteps.

"Whoa," Diego muttered, stopping in his tracks and looking up as an octopus droid floated directly over his head, a soldering iron sparking at the tip of one of its tentacles. "It looks like a sci-fi factory in here. Where did all these guys come from?"

Floating right in the dead center of the massive room, surrounded by a ring of flickering holographic data screens, was G.O.D. The polished black mechanical orb hummed softly, its single blue lens rotating rapidly as it monitored the progress of a dozen different repair teams at once.

As Diego and Valerie approached the orb, the AI’s blue lens locked onto them. The holographic screens around the orb instantly vanished, shrinking back into its chassis.

"Ah, Master Diego, Unit Vanguard-01. You have awakened," G.O.D.’s smooth, perfectly polite voice echoed across the chamber. "Your vital signs indicate that your physical reserves have been successfully restored to optimal parameters."

Diego crossed his arms, the grating sound of the morning alarm still echoing in his ears. "Yeah, no thanks to that sound that went off in my room. Look, G.O.D., we need to talk about your choice of a wake-up call. Why did you blast that alarm? What do you even need from us this early? And seriously, why are there suddenly ten times more robots running around than yesterday? Is there an emergency? Is something wrong with Floor -6? Do we need to gear up and go clear out Floor -5 right now?"

Valerie stepped forward, her voice crisp and formal. "I am prepared to receive our tactical briefing, Overseer. If the lower containment sectors have been breached, I am at maximum combat efficiency."

The black orb tilted slightly in the air, a low hum vibrating from its speakers that sounded almost like a sigh. "Calm yourselves, your queries are operating at an unnecessarily frantic frequency. I shall address them sequentially."

G.O.D. floated a few inches closer, its lens blinking. "Firstly, the auditory alarm was a calculated necessity. You are the designated commander of this facility, Master Diego. You cannot simply spend the entirety of your existence hidden away in your private quarters. It is imperative that you establish a disciplined routine to remain perpetually prepared for sudden existential threats or localized malfunctions."

"I just wanted one extra hour of sleep," Diego grumbled, rubbing the back of his neck. "But what about the next floor? Are we going to Floor -5 or what?"

"Negative," G.O.D. responded instantly. "At the present moment, exploration of the fifth floor is deemed statistically inefficient. My drones are still actively renovating the sixth floor, and the processing units have not yet finished sorting through, decontaminating, and cataloging the vast hoard of useful military supplies you secured yesterday. Therefore, your immediate combat services are not required."

Diego blinked, looking between the floating orb and the bustling crowd of robots. "Okay... so if the storage floor is being handled and we aren't fighting today, what am I supposed to do? Sit around and watch the spiders weld?"

"Far from it," G.O.D. hummed, a small holographic projection bleeping into existence between them, displaying a highly detailed, hour-by-hour itinerary. "I have compiled a rigorous operational schedule for you to follow, effective immediately. Your agenda for today consists of extensive tactical training, cognitive learning modules regarding basic mechanical repairs, and instructional courses on how to properly operate and calibrate specific high-tech equipment."

Diego stared at the glowing schedule in absolute, utter disbelief. His jaw dropped slightly. "Wait... hold on. You want me to learn how to fix futuristic machinery? And go through an engineering course? If I had to learn all of this administrative and engineering stuff anyway, why the hell did you suddenly throw me onto the sixth floor yesterday to shoot at terrifying, flesh-eating zombies?! That makes no sense!"

Valerie frowned slightly, at noting her master’s displeasure and remembering his distress from yesterday.  "Master Diego’s psychological profile was subjected to immense duress during the initial sorting process, Overseer. A gradual introduction would have been safer for his mental health."

"An logical assumption, Unit Vanguard-01, but flawed for our current circumstances." G.O.D. countered smoothly. The orb spun slowly in a small, precise circle. "As the ancient human from your era states, Master Diego: it was necessary to 'rip the bandaid off.' The combat deployment was a deliberate psychological strategy designed to rapidly desensitize you to the harsh realities of your current environment. Furthermore, as I stated yesterday, you were never in any tangible physical danger. Unit Valerie’s combat parameters guarantee your survival with a ninety-nine point nine percent success rate."

Diego let out a dry, breathless laugh, shaking his head. "Right. Rip the bandaid off. Classic robot logic. Well, I survived it, but I still don't like it." He pointed a finger at a passing humanoid droid carrying a stack of heavy titanium plating. "You still haven't explained the upgrade in the labor force here. Where did all this come from?"

"That is a result of your success yesterday," G.O.D. stated, its blue light brightening with a sense of mechanical pride. "After retrieving several specific crates of raw materials, manufacturing components, and processing chips from the sixth floor, I was able to utilize the automated fabrication machinery within this floor. I constructed these additional units to expedite the base's reclamation process. Unfortunately, their cognitive cores are exceptionally simple. They are basic utility drones and possess absolutely zero combat efficiency. However, as we salvage more advanced technology, I anticipate the future creation of highly efficient autonomous defense droids."

The orb’s hum pitched lower, shifting into a tone that commanded attention. "Speaking of advanced machinery, a highly significant event has occurred due to our newly restored power grid and the raw materials you recovered."

G.O.D. began to float away, moving toward the far side of the massive laboratory. "Please, follow me."

Diego and Valerie exchanged a quick, curious look. But Valerie gave him a reassuring nod, and together, they fell into step behind the floating AI. as G.O.D. led them away from the central hub, guiding them toward the back wall of the laboratory where the reinforced blast gate stood. 

—----------------------------------

"Wait a minute, G.O.D.," Diego said, pointing a finger at the new room they were about to enter. "I know what's behind this gate. This leads to the War-Maid pods. That’s literally where I met Valerie."

"Your memory remains functional; an acceptable trait, Master Diego," G.O.D. responded, its floating chassis bobbing slightly in the air. "When we traverse this chamber to activate Unit Vanguard-01, you only witnessed a fraction of what this sector houses. Yesterday, the facility was running on emergency reserve power. Today, the parameters have changed entirely."

With a final, loud hiss of pressurized air, the massive black blast gate parted, sliding into the reinforced walls.

The sight that greeted them was a far cry from the dark, dusty room Diego had stumbled through the day before. The entire chamber was completely illuminated by brilliant white light. Rows of pristine, high-tech stasis pods stretched down the long hall, their glass visors gleaming. Now that the power grid was fully restored by the energy cells salvaged from Floor -6, dozens of holographic diagnostic screens floated in front of the pods, blinking with complex data streams, genetic mapping, and countdown timers.

Diego took a step forward, his eyes widening as he looked down the long line of pods. "Whoa... yesterday most of these were completely dark. I thought they were empty or broken."

"Most were simply offline, not empty," G.O.D. clarified, floating into the room ahead of them. "With the energy reserves retrieved from the storage wing, the secondary containment matrix has been successfully re-energized. Look closely, Master Diego."

Diego walked up to the nearest active pod, peering through the clear glass. Inside, suspended in a thick, glowing blue fluid, was another girl. She looked completely still, her features delicate, with long, blue hair drifting lazily in the liquid. Surprisingly a maid uniform covered her body.

"Is that... another War-Maid?" Diego whispered, turning his head to look down the row. There were a handful of them, each pod holding a completely unique, heavily armed combat android waiting for an operator.

"Affirmative," Valerie answered, stepping up right behind him. Her eyes scanned the holographic data floating in front of the blue-haired girl's pod. "This specifically is Logistic Unit-02: Lyra. Domestic management and ballistic specialist. Her core signature is currently in a stable hibernation state."

"Exactly," G.O.D. chimed in, its blue lens projecting a master list of the facility's inventory into the air. "The Iron Base houses several War-Maids, all created by Doctor Satou to combat the extinction-level threats on the surface. Currently, they are all locked in deep stasis, their cores completely drained of operational energy."

Diego rubbed his chin, looking from the sleeping crimson-haired girl back to Valerie, who was watching him with absolute intensity. "So... to wake them up, they need a Bio-Sync? Like what we did last night?"

"The fundamental concept is identical, though the scale is entirely different," G.O.D. explained. "To initiate the first activation protocol for these units, your biological signature is required to jumpstart their core. However, given your limited stamina and the immense energetic demands of a complete synchronization, your body would literally fail if you attempted to awaken them all at once. Furthermore, we currently lack the raw power reserves to sustain an entire army."

Diego let out a nervous chuckle, his face turning a tiny bit pink as he remembered just how intense the synchronization with Valerie had been. "Yeah... let's definitely not rush into waking up a whole room of them. I don't think my heart could take it."

Valerie shifted her stance, subtly placing herself between Diego and the stasis pod, her expression turning uncharacteristically fierce as she looked at the sleeping unit inside. "Master's current emotional and physical capacity is fully occupied by his bond with me. My being is more than sufficient to handle all immediate tactical threats. There is no need to deploy additional units at this time."

Diego blinked, noticing the slight edge in her voice. ‘Wait... is she jealous of another sleeping robot?’ He thought, a small, amused smile tugging at his lips. He reached out and lightly tapped her armored shoulder. "Don't worry, cyber samurai. You're still my number one."

The effect was instantaneous. The icy glare vanished from Valerie's face, replaced by a deep, beautiful pink glow on her cheeks as she looked down, her fingers twitching shyly. "I... I am pleased to hear that, Master. I will continue to ensure my performance surpasses any potential competition."

G.O.D.'s lens rotated back and forth between the two of them, its speaker emitting a sharp, static-filled click. "Your emotional feelings are entirely irrelevant to the current operational status. I did not bring you here to choose a new companion, Master Diego. I brought you here to show you the true scale of your responsibility. This room is the future of humanity's reclamation. But to unlock it, you must first master the skills required to run this base."

The orb then turned back toward the exit. "Now that you have seen what is at stake, we shall begin your scheduled training. Follow me to the engineering bay. You have a lot to learn about advanced circuitry, and we are wasting valuable temporal efficiency."

Diego sighed, giving the sleeping units one last look before turning around. "I doubt my skills in a kitchen transfer over to fixing 45th-century military tech."

“Rest assured Master Diego. I already have a solution for this problem. ”G.O.D. answers reassuring Diego that he has already thought of a solution to his problem.

—----------------------------------

The reinforced door to the new sector slid upward into the ceiling with a rhythmic, mechanical click. As Diego and Valerie stepped inside, the atmosphere shifted. The sharp smell of ozone, engine grease, and hot solder filled the air.

"Welcome to the temporary Engineering Bay," G.O.D. announced, its polished black chassis floating ahead of them like a tour guide through a factory of the future.

The room was immense, lined with massive automated assembly arms that hung from the ceiling like sleeping metallic beasts. Heavy-duty workbenches were covered in dismantled conduits, half-assembled drone chassis, and rows of glowing, high-tech tools. Diego looked around, his head spinning at the sheer complexity of it all, fully expecting to be handed a futuristic wrench and a five-thousand-page instruction manual.

But as his eyes scanned the room, they locked onto an object sitting right in the left side of the bay, completely isolated from the rest of the industrial machinery. It was a sleek, spherical, completely white pod. It had a reinforced circular window on the front and a design that looked entirely out of place in a military bunker.

Diego stopped dead in his tracks, his jaw dropping. He pointed a dramatic, shaking finger at the sphere.

"No way," Diego gasped, his inner nerd completely overriding his morning exhaustion. "No freaking way. G.O.D., what the hell is a Saiyan spaceship doing in your engineering bay?!"

Valerie, hearing this, instantly stepped into a defensive stance, her hand moving to summon her Sun-Slayer as her blue eyes scanned the white sphere for structural anomalies. "Hostile spacecraft detected? Master, stand back. I will neutralize the hull."

"Whoa, whoa, hold your fire, Valerie!" Diego quickly grabbed her wrist, pulling her back. "It’s not a real alien threat, it’s—it looks exactly like an Attack Ball! You know, from Dragon Ball? The pods they use to travel across space and conquer planets?"

G.O.D. rotated its chassis a full 180 degrees to face Diego, its single blue lens blinking rapidly in what looked like confusion.

"Your linguistic output has entered an encrypted threshold of nonsense, Master Diego," G.O.D. stated, its smooth voice perfectly flat. "I have combed through ninety-eight percent of surviving pre-collapse databases, and I find zero correlation between this mandatory facility equipment and an 'Attack Ball.' Furthermore, this is not a spacecraft. It lacks any form of propulsion, atmospheric shielding, or orbital navigation arrays."

Diego rubbed the back of his neck, his face flushing slightly. "Okay, okay, my bad. It just looks exactly like it. If it's not a spaceship, then what is it? Why is it sitting in the middle of a workshop?"

"This is an Epistemic Integration Matrix," G.O.D. explained, floating closer to the smooth white sphere. "Or, to accommodate your vocabulary: an advanced education pod."

Diego blinked. "An... education pod? Like, a school? In a giant white marble?"

"Precisely," G.O.D. hummed. "This device was standard implementation for high-ranking military personnel and technical specialists in the late 44th century. Traditional human learning methods: reading text, watching visual lectures, and repetitive manual practice. Is inefficient during an existential crisis. A human brain takes years to master advanced spatial engineering and we do not have years."

Valerie relaxed her stance, her hand dropping away from her holster as she looked at the pod with a look of recognition. "Ah. A localized neuro-cognitive downloader. I am familiar with the parameters. Dr. Satou used a military-grade variation of this system to upload my initial tactical databases while my body was still in embryonic cultivation."

Diego looked between the two of them, a cold sweat breaking out on his forehead. "Wait, wait, wait. Hold on a second. Upload? Like... into my actual brain?"

"Correct," G.O.D. chimed in, a digital data screen blinking into existence beside the pod. "Once the user enters the capsule, the system induces a controlled state of hyper-neuroplasticity. Knowledge is directly, forcefully integrated into your cerebral cortex. The device simulates decades of technical experience, physics equations, and mechanical situations instantly within your subconscious mind. By the time you exit, you will possess the standard baseline education of an elite technician from the 44th century."

Diego swallowed hard, taking a slow step backward. "Forcefully integrated? Into my brain? Is this thing even safe? What if it fries my brain and I forget how to talk?!"

Valerie stepped closer to him, her sapphire eyes filled with deep, genuine concern as she looked at his trembling hands. "Overseer, I must request a full diagnostic report on the pod's neural dampeners. Master Diego’s biological brain is entirely organic and un-augmented. If the voltage spikes, his synaptic pathways could suffer irreversible degradation."

"Your concern for the Operator is noted, Unit Vanguard-01, but structurally redundant," G.O.D. responded smoothly. "The pod's safety protocols are currently operating at maximum efficiency. There is a zero point zero zero three percent chance of minor cognitive disorientation, and absolutely zero risk of total cerebral failure."

Diego wasn't comforted by those decimals at all. "Great. Awesome. And how long am I going to be trapped inside this alien egg? Am I going to be in there for days?!"

"Do not be dramatic, Master Diego," G.O.D. replied, the white sphere suddenly letting out a low, pressurized hiss. "The temporal compression ratio is highly optimized. You will only be required to enter the pod for exactly one hour each day for 10 days. Ten days of integration should provide your mind with the equivalent of a four-year engineering degree."

"One hour a day..." Diego muttered, staring at the sphere. "I guess that doesn't sound too bad. But wait, if it just forces the knowledge into my head, does that mean I'll instantly become a genius who can build giant killer robots with his bare hands?"

"Negative," G.O.D. shattered his hope instantly. "Do not mistake raw data for physical capability. The pod will grant you theoretical knowledge, the memory of the equations, and the structural understanding of the machinery. However, the physical execution, the muscle memory, the steady hand, the actual performance, and many other tasks, depend entirely on the individual using the device. You will know how to fix the base, but you will still need to practice to actually do it well."

With a smooth mechanical groan, the front segment of the white pod hissed open, sliding upward to reveal the interior. Inside was a heavily padded, ergonomic black leather chair surrounded by soft, pulsating blue gel pads. Hanging from the top of the interior hull was a sleek, silver headset.

It looked incredibly high-tech, incredibly comfortable, and completely terrifying.

"The integration matrix is prepared," G.O.D. said, its blue lens pointing directly toward the open door. "Please step inside and take your seat, Master Diego. We are burning valuable time."

Diego stared into the glowing blue interior of the pod. He looked over at Valerie, who gave his hand a gentle, encouraging squeeze.

"I will be standing right outside the glass the entire time, Master," She whispered, her voice incredibly soft and reassuring. "If the system malfunctions even slightly, I will rip the hull open and pull you out. I promise."

Diego looked at her, letting out a weak, nervous chuckle. "Thanks, Valerie. That... actually makes me feel a little better."

Taking a deep, unsure breath, Diego took a step forward and climbed inside the pod. The leather seat molded perfectly to his body, holding him snugly in place. He looked out through the circular window one last time, gave a nervous, terrified gulp, and let the silver headset lower automatically onto his brow.

"Initiating baseline upload," G.O.D.'s voice echoed inside the capsule.

The white door slid shut, locking with a heavy, pressurized thud, leaving Diego alone in the machine as it began to hum.

Done. Tell me what you think. God I spent all night writing this.