Above a stretch of white clouds, the horizon caught the first rays of the rising sun, its light spreading in quiet bands across the sky. Overhead, stars still lingered, faint but steady, as if reluctant to give way to day.
Breathtaking as it may have been, none of it was real.
The clouds, the light, the stars. Every detail was a projection, a landscape built from code and numbers.
And in that constructed expanse, four androids gathered, their meeting set above a sky designed to feel endless.
When they could have communicated everything they wanted in less than a second, going through a meeting like this couldn't have been more inefficient.
Yet they were still doing it.
Pretending to be human, talking like humans, in a space no human could ever enter.
Zero, Alpha, and Beta stood together in front of Iris, each of them going over their current situation in a report-like manner.
"Our policy had always been to gain benefits while going after criminals worth killing."
