Inside and Out
Silva quietly gazed at the Commander's face.
The weight of his body pressing down on her, the musky, fishy scent of chestnut flowers mixed with sweat, his ragged breathing.
And those piercing black eyes staring right through her.
"......"
She was an ECHO, trained to be a simple receiver of orders, stripped of all emotion.
That was her reason for existing.
ECHOs were weapons deployed in the war against zombies, mechanical monsters, and anomalies.
Weapons had no reason to feel emotions toward humans in the first place.
[Cerberus Squad, deploy.]
[Cerberus. This is Alpha. As of now, assigning Cerberus Squad the mission to buy time for the main force's retreat.]
[Ah, fuck—! Why the hell are these damn ECHO bitches even here?]
[Hey! Get lost. Your quarters aren't here—they're outside the Ark. Go patrol the perimeter or something.]
That was how she'd spent years learning nothing but obedience, treating orders like data inputs.
She'd watched countless ECHOs vanish like expendable supplies, accepting it as the natural law of this world.
Of course, no human ever saw an ECHO as an object of desire.
And yet...
"Your breasts are so soft. Mind if I suck on them?"
What in the world was the Commander of Ark 69?
He was exploring her shell of a body as if it belonged to a living, breathing human.
She'd clearly seen the Squad Leader Helena crumble just moments ago under the Commander's intense demands.
It wasn't mere obedience—Helena had looked like she was feeling something special.
The ever-resilient leader of Cerberus Squad had begged for more of the Commander, acting like a spoiled human woman in his arms.
And now, those demands were directed at her.
"......"
Silva quietly watched as the Commander buried his face in her breasts, sucking and nibbling at her nipples while caressing her skin.
The unfamiliar sensations made her core heat up for no apparent reason.
Why does the Commander... use me, a mere weapon, for something other than combat?
Watching him indulge in her body sparked that sudden question.
But before she could puzzle it out, the Commander's order came first.
"Silva, spread your legs a bit."
"...Yes, Commander."
Following the absolute system rule—ECHOs obey the Commander—Silva didn't resist. Just like Helena had done moments before, she parted her legs.
Riiip!
Her combat suit tore away like paper as the Commander's hard cock tapped against her entrance.
For reasons she couldn't fathom, the Commander intended to use her, just like Helena, as an outlet for his lust.
I'm not even human...
Yet he treated her as if she were a human woman.
"Spread it open yourself."
"...Understood."
Without a hint of hesitation, Silva reached down and parted her pussy lips.
"Your pubic hair's golden?"
"It's set that way in my genetic profile. Matches the color of my hair."
"I see. Where're you from?"
"Ark 42, located in North Carolina."
Her words jogged my memory for a moment.
I'd grinded hard on Echoes of Humanity — ECHO, but I didn't remember every story detail.
Ark 42 in North Carolina.
Nothing specific came to mind about it.
Even if I did know, would it matter? This world's thirty years earlier than the game's future I remember anyway.
That wasn't the point, though.
I eased just the tip inside, and Silva's insides were way tighter than I'd expected.
Pushing in like this might hurt me more than her, so I spat into my palm and stroked her pussy.
Then a playful curiosity struck, and I looked at her.
"You know what it means for a woman to get wet, right?"
"Yes. It's the phenomenon where the body secretes lubricant to accommodate penetration by a partner's genitals during mating."
Close enough.
Her textbook response made me chuckle as I leaned over her body.
I gazed at her face.
True to her origins in a bishoujo collector game, she had a beautiful face.
She's this gorgeous—why do the humans in this world despise ECHOs so much...?
Well, there were reasons.
ECHOs were created, and zombies, anomalies, and mechanical monsters appeared right after, leading to the fall of human civilization—that was the lore.
Early in the apocalypse, some Commanders had even used ECHOs sexually, only for the Z Virus lingering in their abused bodies to infect and turn people into zombies.
An entire Ark got wiped out in one such incident.
Over time, ECHOs became humanity's weapons yet were branded the culprits behind it all, facing discrimination. That was the core setup of Echoes of Humanity — ECHO.
But I wasn't one of this world's humans.
As our eyes met briefly, I brushed back her bangs.
"You know what a kiss is, right?"
"Yes."
"Kiss me."
"...You're not going to use my pussy?"
"Later. For now, pretend I'm your boyfriend and come at me."
She blinked at my words, then wrapped her arms around my neck and pressed her lips to mine.
True to her ECHO nature, obedient to Commander's orders, Silva came at me with a fierce, aggressive tangle of tongues that erased any memory of her prior quiet stoicism.
We embraced tightly, kissing deeply for a long while before I pressed my forehead to hers and said,
"From today, you're mine."
Silva tilted her head at my words.
As if wondering why I'd ask something so obvious.
"......I don't understand the intent of the question. ECHOs exist to obey the Commander's orders."
"Like with Helena—I want to make you my woman. Meaning, whenever I want, I'll use you for sex."
"I'm not human, Commander. Reproductive activity between humans and ECHOs is impossible."
"But you look just like a human woman, right? And even if breeding's off the table... we can still feel each other, can’t we?"
"......"
Her eyes flickered uncertainly at my words.
In truth, Silva's inner systems were glitching with errors from the unfamiliar emotions stirred by the Commander's order to treat him as her lover.
His hand caressing her breast, the cock between her legs, the intense kiss moments ago.
She sensed she'd crumble just like Helena had—and part of her wanted to.
She yearned to be an ECHO with meaning to a human... to the Commander... rather than one senselessly destroyed in battle and discarded.
A snippet from an old human book she'd glimpsed during a mission surfaced in her memory.
"......"
Finishing her recollection, Silva grasped the Commander's cock with her hand and guided it to her entrance.
Her touch was clumsy, but the intent was clear.
"I still don't fully understand what you mean, Commander. But..."
Silva looked into his face and gave a faint smile.
"Thinking of you as my boyfriend... it feels like I'm getting wet."
A tiny spark of desire flickered in her blue eyes.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
While the air inside the abandoned building grew hot and sticky,
Arva stood alone in the chill darkness outside. Her sensors had been picking up faint spatial distortions for a while now.
It was a bizarre waveform, utterly unlike an ordinary zombie approach.
"......"
And she'd encountered something similar before.
The Hachishakusama.
The monster that had left her with indelible defeat and helplessness.
She drew the tungsten-alloy monomolecular blade from her waist.
A treasured weapon the new Commander of Ark 69 had bought just for her—one she polished meticulously every night.
Her gaze locked onto a single point in the darkness.
There... something eerie was emerging from the crumbled wall.
[Po... Po.... Popo....]
A grotesque sound, impossible to tell if it came from a human or an ECHO.
With that noise, a woman in a white dress appeared.
Her wide-brimmed hat cast shadows over her face, hiding it from view, but her gaze was unmistakable.
It was fixed on this abandoned building—on the Commander inside.
She was surely after the Commander's vital essence.
To this aberrant monster before her, it was the sweetest prey imaginable.
"Go back to where you came from."
Arva stepped in front of the Hachishakusama, warning her.
[Po... Popopopo...! Popopo!!]
The Hachishakusama raised her voice in protest, like a petulant child.
But Arva shook her head. Losing her precious Commander to an unknown anomaly was a lesson she'd learned once already.
[Poooooooh!!!]
Furious, the Hachishakusama's arm stretched unnaturally long, slashing toward Arva like it was ripping through space itself.
Clang! Clang!
Arva swung her monomolecular blade without hesitation.
A flash of blue light cleaved through the darkness, slicing the Hachishakusama's arm clean—but only black smoke billowed from the stump.
"Hmph!"
With her upgraded weapon and combat systems…
She wouldn't fall into the same sloppy trap as before and endanger the Commander.
Arva moved fluidly, parrying the Hachishakusama's attacks and blocking her path.
Her sword whipped mercilessly with one sole purpose—protect the Commander.
[Poooooooh—!!!!]
Unable to break through Arva's interference, the Hachishakusama stomped in frustration, letting out a shriek of rage and annoyance before vanishing into the shadows.
"......Hoo."
Confirming the anomaly's departure, Arva let out a short sigh.
Even with new gear and upgrades, subduing this thing still seemed impossible.
"I need to get stronger."
Strong enough to eliminate every threat to the Commander.
Arva scanned the surroundings once more, then sheathed her monomolecular blade at her waist.
She glanced at the abandoned building where the Commander was resting soundly.
Just in case...
She'd patrol the area again.
The clash with the Hachishakusama might have drawn out the zombies.
As Arva drove off the intruder and circled the perimeter…
Inside the building's makeshift shelter...
"Commander—! Commander...! Ah! Aaaah! Th-This feels so good—! It feels amazing!!!"
"S-Sex—! Sexsexsexsex!!! Nngh! Oh! Ooooh!"
"Slurp! Smooch! Slurrrrp!"
"Th-This... is the taste of a human?! C-Commander...! Y-You're so delicious!!!"
"Aaaahn! Ah! Ah! Aaaaah—!"
Helena and Silva's moans mingled as the three—man and ECHOs turned into women through sex—tangled together in a heated frenzy.