He glanced at her and chuckled. "I think you underestimate the capabilities of your Minato there as well as your AI. From what I was able to see between your own abilities and what your mech was able to do while being pursued by those pirates, I'd say we have much more in mind for you to do than merely support the combat mechs. It would be a waste to keep the two of you aside from any particular situation in which we might need you because the Minato is technically a support mech."
"He does have a point," Mini added for what felt like the first time since they had left the Beast and begun their scouting mission. "Even if we were kept away from the heat of central combat, using us solely for resupply and support as the mech type dictates would be a waste of our talents."
"Don't distract him," Jessica13 said with a chuckle and patted the inside of her mech to show appreciation for the AI before she returned her attention to the man who marched beside her. "As much as I appreciate your confidence in our abilities, don't change the subject. I get that you think it'll make me feel calmer and better if I didn't know what kind of chances we have, but believe me, a person like me doesn't feel better not knowing. And don't even think about lying either."
Tinker barked a laugh again and this time, sounded genuinely amused by her words. A short silence ensued as they continued through the tall, dry grass that still covered the landscape as far as the eye could see.
"Well, I wouldn't want to insult your intelligence, lassie," he said finally. "Don't think I'm trying to hide anything from you. You should know by now it’s simply how I work. I'm honest to a fault, or I try to be. The fact is, I don't know how likely it would be that any of us would survive an assault on Athena and her followers. When we parted ways, she came away with the larger numbers of the Knights Mechanica but that was years ago. As we haven't encountered her since then, there's no way for us to know if her numbers have dwindled or increased or if her power in this area is the same as it was back then."
"Well, if she spends her time making the lives of simple and undefended farmers difficult, I suppose it would be safe to say she doesn’t rule the landscape with an iron fist," she commented. "Especially if she is a new enough addition to their lives that they would look for help instead of simply finding a way to pay her to leave them be."
"That’s true, I suppose," Tinker admitted. "But she has the Excalibur and her spear, which means she is still a force to be reckoned with. It could be that she is expanding the borders of her control by oppressing open towns that don't have much in the way of protection like you said. Or they're merely doing it because they want to. There’s no way to account for the kind of fucked-up shit folks with addled brains might do for fun Outside."
That much she could agree with. She'd often wondered what led people to be pirates instead of helping the people around them to survive and thrive while they did the same. There were folks who saw it as freedom to release their foul nature that had been restrained in more civilized environments and sometimes, there was no accounting for what those people would do simply because they felt like doing it.
"I have records of studies in this regard if you would like to see them. They indicate that some humans are more likely to engage in actions they truly desire when the supervision and threat of retaliation are reduced," Mini added and displayed a couple of graphs she couldn't understand on the HUD.
“So what are you saying? That people are only good if they have rules and regulations?” She was a little confused, but maybe Hammerhand and the Knights were good only because they had their own rules they enforced themselves?
"Not at all. Unlike AIs that are pre-programmed with certain responses, humans behave according to a wide variety of emotions, character traits, experience, and reactions. In the case of people who are genuinely good like Hammerhand, when given the opportunity to act without anything or anyone punishing their actions, they choose to do good. Those who are motivated by other human driving forces like greed or lust are less likely to help others unless doing so furthers their own goals. It is likely that Athena was always a less than good person from the beginning and only feigned it because she saw the opportunity to benefit from his determination to help others."
"Okay, I can understand that," she said, although it raised any number of other questions. "Few people are like Hammerhand and the Knights, so does that mean there aren't many people who are genuinely good in this world?”
“It’s not black and white,” Tinker interjected. “Athena and Hammerhand could be said to represent the two extremes, although it’s more complicated than that. Everyone has some good or bad in them or at least started out with it. Most people lean toward good, I’d say, otherwise we’d have a horde of Athenas running around killing and rampaging.”
She nodded at that but remained silent, so Mini continued when the man said no more.
“I have computed that, and it is a perfectly logical deduction. However, my records indicate that a human’s primary response is based on perceived personal benefit.” He said it as a statement, but there seemed to be an unspoken question behind it as if he wanted clarity but didn’t want to show his ignorance. Perhaps a hundred years asleep had left bigger gaps in his database than Jessica13 had first realized.
Tinker chuckled. “Well, yes, that’s true. But again,
