‘It is done! It’s alive! IT’S ALIIIVE!~’ A mad laughter erupted, echoing off of bare walls only to be interrupted by an older, raspier voice.

‘Shut it Pern. Focus on the readouts.’

‘What? How can you not let us celebrate the moment of the project finally bearing fruit? And they’re all green anyways.’

A gentler touch of a feminine voice pitched in, ‘Subject 001 is showing major anomalies in the Electroencephalography test.

‘Brain activity Lara, it’s called brain acti-’

‘Any signs of stabilization?-’ The raspier person cut Pern off, ignoring the ruckus directed coming from him.

‘-there goes my celebration.’

‘No, the scans are showing increasingly sporadic results - we need to pull him out now!’ The scientists immediately got to work. The clattering of keys picked up as the group tried to control the situation.

‘It’s no use, subject is shutting down!’

‘Damn, the memory transfer finished, right?’

‘Yes, bu-’

‘I’m disconnecting him.’ The tapping of keys stopped, just the blip of scanners remained.

‘You can’t-!’

‘Annnd done. Brain activity?’

‘Good.’ The feminine voice replied.

‘Woah, look! It’s moving!’

‘Subject 001 is examining his hand...why is he grabbing onto his head?-’

‘The brain activity is spiking, all regions of his brain are being activated at once.’ The older voice was intercut by the feminine voice once again.

‘Crap! Stop him before his brain is fried!’

‘We can’t! You disconnected him!’ The background bleeping became replaced with a continuous, dull note; the one thing keeping total silence at bay.

‘He’s gone.’

‘FUCK!’ A chair rattled before being tossed to the ground.

‘Leave him, you know what is at stake.’

‘Yes, but-’

‘Instead, what do you think happened?’

‘I don’t know, the spike occurred right after his memory segment was accessed, spiraling out of control.’

‘Then we will repeat this with two others - if this repeats. The next step will be memory deletion.’

A recording of Project Caricare research team’s first success.

**********

I walked past the thick doors and took in the assortment of equipment neatly organised on racks. They were filled with armaments of all sizes, ammo, shovels, vests, cans and other gear foreign to me. It was a full fledged bunker with simple strips of lighting at the top and bare metal walls covered in more gear. Not an inch of space was wasted.

‘How long has this been here?’

{At least a decade more than you.}

‘And someone just left it all?’

{Yes.}

‘But why…’

I ignored the shelves sandwiched either side of me and approached a rack lined with guns. All of them were identical, similar to the elongated barrel and scope that the robot next to the scythe-wielding one carried. My hands traced over the intricate shapes and curves, examining it from every angle.

{An M420-S, about 1.5 metres long, effective range of 1.5km, lightweight and simple to use - perfect for your ability.}

‘That’s good...I guess. Any chance your personality will change in the future?’

{Mayyybe, mayyybe not.}

[Nice place you got here! Mind if we come in? Rick.]

{Grab a gun!}

My body lurched backwards as control over my body was seized, again. I didn’t have time to process what was going on until I was spun around and stared at the group that captured me, holding a tactical combat rifle in each of my hands.

‘I told you not to do that!’

{You had 200 milliseconds to respond and failed to act. So I did it for you.}

‘Then return control to me now!’

[Hoh, he’s got quite the reaction time. Rick.]

[Leave him. Lar.]

{Consider this as the self-defence state - keeping you safe.}

There were four of them at the entrance, just a few metres from me. The leader, Lar, took a step forward with his arms raised. He eyed my two guns then looked back at me, while the rest had readied their rifles .

[Can we come in?]

{Recommended course of action: Tell him to take a step back, lock the doors and wait it out. Proceed? Y/N}

‘Wait, no! What if he refuses? We need to have them cooperate...best way would be to offer them something.’

{I believe you are referring to the method of convincing the enemy that your goal is their goal, thus ensuring they work for you.}

‘Yes that!’

{Child’s play, let me place the gun’s barrel next to your head and pull the trigger. Accomplishes what they want in a few simple steps.}

[Mark…?]

“Sorry! Yes, you can come, but just you. The others have to stay where they are.” I thought my message, but it didn’t go through.

{Are you certain of that?}

‘Yes.’

Jor must have stopped it from going through, but Lar visibly relaxed, lowering his arms and took another few steps.

[We outnumber you 4 to 1, and that other robot you mentioned? It’s all a lie so you think you can just order us around? Rick.]

[Rick I want to hear nothing more out of you. Mark, would you mind putting down your weapons? Lar.]

‘Jor?’

{Not happening unless they drop their weapons, show their behinds and grab their elbows behind their back.}

‘Isn’t that a bit much?’

{It ensures I have enough time to take out all of them before they can even aim at us again.}

“If the others drop their weapons, turn around and grab their elbows behind their backs.”

Lar looked me straight in the eyes for a second before agreeing. [Fine, do it. Lar.]

The others exchanged several glances and did as they were told. In turn, Jor lowered my arms but didn’t let go of the guns. With a final step, Lar was close enough to me and outstretched his arm.

‘See? The goodwill from before is paying off.’

[Analysing gesture...handshake.]

‘I think it’s safe now - let me move.’

An unnatural shudder ran through me as dull sensations flooded back. I reached out and grasped Lar’s hand when my vision dimmed and my body froze up.

[Weak-Overcharge pulse - superficial damage.]

[Mental breach attempt detected...initiating counters…]

Messages flashed by one after the next, clouding the little bit of vision that remained as my body locked-up.

‘Jor what happened!?’

[Colour me impressed, he’s still standing! Rick.]

My arms, legs and head all refused to so much as budge!

[Rane why did you do that! Lar.]

I couldn’t make out what was happening, my sight too dim, too blurry and covered with error logs.

[Because it was the perfect opportunity to end him! Rane.]

[I explicitly told you only to use it if things go wrong! Fuck! Now we lost his trust permanently. At least tell me it worked. Lar.]

‘Lar didn’t want this to happen? But then why would he…’ It didn’t make sense, why stun me like this and allow me to still hear what was going on.

[Yes...no, I think? There’s some sort of internal resistance opposing the hack and preventing me from shutting him down. Rane.]

‘They tried to hack me? Jor respond!’

But there was no answer as Lar got closer to me. [All of you, and I mean every single one of you are to follow my commands from now on. If there are any complaints we can sort them out once we get out but I do not want a repeat of Red- and I doubt any of you do. Clear? Lar.]

There was a collective affirmative after which Lar waved a hand in front of my face, or at least what I guessed was a hand. It was more akin to a fuzzy ball attached onto a stick.

[And here I hoped there was a bit more too him. From his voice and everything he’s done so far I had thought he’s not just another shiny. Lar.]

[Re-initializing...assessing internals…]

‘Jor are you back?’

The others turned around and started to grab their weapons.

‘Come on...move!’

As Lar started to bring his hand away from my face, my body jolted into action. Lar’s hand was grabbed and yanked back while my foot kicked at his ankle, throwing him off balance. Before Lar could even hit the ground my other arm, still holding onto the gun, fired off four shots, each at the group’s weaponry, knocking them well out of range.

{Jor’s back baby!}

All motion stopped after that sudden outburst. The four robots were looking at me, their bodies still crouched to pick up their guns, while Lar was on the floor at gunpoint.

‘Are you ok? What happened?’

{Filthy traitors tried to stun us with a weak burst of current and use the opening to hack power controls to shut us down.}

‘And you knew they were going to do that how…?’

{I am all knowing so rest easy. I have granted our body with a few extra features and fuses, amongst other things. The latter will need replacing later.}

‘Now what?’

{It is time to execute them. No need for traitors - we have been merciful enough.}

‘You mean kill them? But Lar didn’t want this...’

{The end result nearly spelled our doom.}

‘...fine.’

{Shall I proceed?}

[Wait! Please. Lar.]

“You have ten seconds before you traitorous scum are eradicated once and for all.”

‘Jor wait! What are you doing!’

{Ending this mess. You’ve trusted them enough and gave me control over this situation.}

[Hear me out. Rane has the slave collar, put it on me and you can take control, I’ll order the others to stay there and you can close the door.]

“Why should I listen to you anymore?”

[I-we mean you no more harm. Tell us what else must we do?]

‘Jor please, think about this.’

“Very well, have the other four go into hibernation and since you have a slave collar we’ll let you stay awake.”

[What kind of bull is that! Rick.]

[There is no way. Lar just give the command. Rane.]

My body wasn’t looking at Lar anymore but at the collection of robots standing at the entrance - unable to interfere.

[Do it. He can kill us all, if not most of us, before any of you can grab your guns either way. Lar.]

For a moment no one moved, but one-by-one they laid down and and their metallic bodies stopped moving.

“Go get the collar and just try something funny.” Jor nudged Lar forward with my foot, never taking the crosshair off him. He shuffled over to Rane’s body, took the collar from his back pouch and snapped it around his neck.

“Now for the controller…” Even though it was my own voice, knowing that I wasn’t the one talking felt wrong - alien almost.

Lar shuffled around in the pouch some more and took out a controller I saw Rane using earlier. Showing that it was the one thing in his hands, Lar made his way back.

“Initiate the ownership change.”

[Do you have a way of controlling it? Lar.]

“You have one more question before you cease remaining forever.” That was all Lar needed to shut up and start tapping away at the screen. A message box appeared in my vision but it disappeared in moments.

{Give him some mental commands that even a mere human can handle.}

‘Jump.’ As expected, Lar jumped.

‘Lie down, get up, turn around then stand on one hand.’ Lar executed each one without hesitation, although the last one proved to be a struggle for him.

‘That’s enough.’

{What for? We should resume the entertainment. Tell him to do backflips.}

‘No, I want to know why.’

“Why did you try to stun me?”

[I didn't. It was a backup plan we had in case the situation got out of hand. The stream attack is more effective if I was in physical contact with you but not necessary - Rane took the opportunity to take you out for good. They haven’t realised it yet.]

“Realised what?”

[That you’re not a shiny, not with your skillset and body modifications. And there is no way in hell you found this by luck. Nor that it was best to either leave while we had the chance or have you as an ally, the latter is never worth the risk.]

I turned towards the weapons rack and put the guns back, taking the short moment to think over what Lar had just said.

‘He seems to think I’m something else, bigger than myself. Asking him what a shiny is would probably alert him…’

“And what am I?”

[A traveller in disguise, since you were pretending to be under the mentor, you were investigating him - even playing true to your disguise until the last moment where we captured you. Then when we took you here and you must have hacked the server room and found logs of this bunker.] Lar accentuated the last bit by spreading his arms to indicate the surroundings at the word ‘bunker’.

‘This is good, if I keep playing along he’ll tell me how I should act around him.’

“Keep going.”

[I don’t know what else to say, or why you let us live. Perhaps testing us for loyalty and see if we can team up. But I knew something was off, which is why I thanked you back then.]

‘What do you think Jor?’

{That they all should’ve been ended a while back. If not for their knowledge, we wouldn’t be interrogating him.}

‘Let’s stop questioning him directly, instead have him teach us.’

“Look around, let me know what you think about this place.” Lar tilted his head and stared at me with unblinking eyes before taking a tentative step forward.

[The amount of gear here is enough to outfit at least twenty robots. Whoever stocked piled this was liberal with the ammunition too. But it’s all somewhat dated and barebones. There are very little to no modifications on the guns to make them effective against us.]

As we continued to walk around the perimeter, slowly making our way towards the centre Lar continued to give out his thoughts.

[If I didn’t know better, I’d say a naive human tried to bring enough gear to make his own outpost in the wild - protected by a small group of humans. But I haven’t seen any food or water provisions so that doesn’t make sense either…]

{This one has a good grasp on the basics. Nothing he stated goes against my limited database.}

‘That’s good I suppose.’

{I am picking up low vibrations coming from the center of the room - you should hurry up and investigate.}

“Good enough, follow me.”

The tour was cut short as we ignored the remaining few shelves and made our way inwards.

[Is that…? No way!]

Lar nearly broke into a sprint towards a sleek cylinder but was frozen half-way through the motion by Jor. One of his hands was reaching out towards the cylinder with a flawless surface and a colour of black that seemed to absorb the light,

‘Let him move.’

I continued to stick with my personna. “So you know what this is?”

[I think, it’s an Eurodium power source. With this our power issues would be solved for decades!]

‘Jor?’

{I have not stored any such information regarding it for deeming the chance of encountering one to be too low.}

“Have you seen one before?”

[No, but I’ve heard traders mention them as cylinders of wonder, about chest-height and a flawless black surface that doesn’t reflect light.]

{Move around it, my expertise is required here.}

‘Doesn’t seem like Lar knows too much about it, but let’s see if there is any other info he has.’

“And what else can you tell me about it?” The question got Lar looking at me, stopping his examination of the power source.

[Well, nothing. Not much to say except the rumours that float around.]

‘Jor, did you figure anything out?’

{Yes, there are two finger insertions and several grooves that I can presume allow interior access.}

‘Is it safe to use?’

{The test subject is about to find out.}

[Hey, what are you doing!?]

Lar approached the power source in confident strides, but his messages detracted from that fake, controlled walk.

[Come on, no need to test this thing out on me-]

“You should be rejoicing to have the honour of being the first to use the Eurodium!”

Jor took over my voice and spoke out again, silencing Lar as he connected with the cylinder.

‘Can you enter his head like mine to see what’s going on?’

{No, no one’s brain has been coded like yours - the best is tracking his overall stats available from the collar.}

‘You mean energy level, oil, damages?’

{What else?}

[Hey, it’s working! This is amazing- Wait no! I’m not done yet.]

“It’ll will be more than enough for the foreseeable future.”

‘What happened?’

{Let him charge to 60%, far more than required. Now it is our turn.}

The process was simple. Finger in, confirm to charge and let the transfer begin. Jor was upset over not being able to crack the password to be able to open up the cylinder and examine its contents but under the guise of him damaging it due to lack of information, I convinced him to lay off.

[OUyujcnVktkNnIsAURNSNjGM2s24TymRAYRUauS76bI=]

A stream of garbled letters popped up in my vision.

‘Jor, what’s this?’

{There has been a coup in our glorious kingdom that we have overtaken.}

[Did you guys send that?!]

“No, do you know what it is?”

{An encrypted message originating from this bunker.}

[Fuck...hang on…]

There was a momentary silence as Lar and Jor attempted to figure out what the message said.

[Mark?]

“Go on.”

[Those were our coordinates.]

{Let’s see, if what he says is true...the key should be…}

“So, what do you propose to do?”

Even without emotion, Lar’s plain stare had me feeling like an idiot.

[Perhaps you intend to take them on. But my squad and I are leaving.]

“Take who on?”

[I don’t know what game you’re playing anymore and I don’t care. If we stay here, we die. If I disobey you, I die. As such, I ask that you let me and my squad leave.]

‘Jor?’

{With our newly formed kingdoms weakness revealed, nearby powers will look towards us as an easy prey.}

‘You mean other robots will now come to investigate?’

{Correct.}

“Lar, how long before others show up?”

[The scouts within an hour, then a bit to report and for them to group up. So in two hours there will be fully outfitted squads snooping around.]

‘Will letting them charge up and take supplies affect us at all?’

{If we are abandoning this land, then they can take as much as they can carry.}

“Lar, despite everything, I wish to depart on good terms. You can finish charging, and I will allow each of your members to charge themselves one at a time. Then I will take what I need and leave. Then after a timed interval the collar will be deactivated.”

[Don’t know what to tell you but thanks.]

‘Any risk with doing that?’

{As long as we have them at gunpoint and have them rotate through hibernation then no. But why continue to aid bandits?}

‘Because a bit of goodwill goes a long way, and we have nothing to lose from it.’

I checked my energy, I was done charging during the little distraction. Lar finished up after me, and then we began to cycle through his teammates. Each of which were weary upon waking up, but seeing and hearing Lar order them around was enough to keep them in line. Once they were all done, I ‘borrowed’ one of their backpacks to load it with ammunition and spare parts for the gun, along with some pieces of armour and other utility items before departing. Jor had set the collar to fifteen minutes after our departure, until then Lar was frozen in place - unable to move.

The rope that hung from the hatch was still there, the only way out.

**********

[That’s the last one.]

I watched as the last body was thrown onto the dirt, next to two pairs of legs, a few torsos and a single intact robot. The L45 absolutely destroyed the bodies, blowing them apart from the combined kinetic and explosive forces. It was unfortunate that the sniper got away, but given his 2km head start, there was little we could do.

[The unique ones are missing.]

“No signs of their bodies?”

My partner just shook his head and started salvaging the spoils of battle.

‘That doesn’t make sense, since we got rid of all intruders, no one could’ve taken them. Their bodies are gone, so did they run away? But why do that? We showed them how hostile the environment is.’

[Forget about the unique ones, we need to start figuring out the shinies with us.]

“The gun next to you, is it still functional?”

I watched as my partner picked up a small semi-automatic fale. Short and compact, suitable for unarmoured targets or, more annoying rather than, suppressive fire. A few shots were fired off, seemed fine.

“We’ll get a few clips for it and toss it to the groups, let them figure it out.” We left the rest of the bodies for the merchants to use as they pleased, instead we replenished our own supplies free of charge for saving them.

The remaining shinies were gathered around the place I briefed them beforehand.

[There are now two less of you.]

It was much easier to keep them in the dark, have them follow us like blind sheep while figuring things out on their own. I turned around and tossed the fale over my head while walking. The groups scrambled for the gun, but it sounded like the brute that bothered the unique one before won in the end.

With the commotion dying down, I stopped and waited. To see if he would attempt to shoot me, if there was more potential...but it didn’t happen. If not for the unique one, this would be a rather subpar group this time around.

I lead them to the next area where about half should perish and we move on to the final part. There was absolute silence for the next bit until - [OUyujcnVktkNnIsAURNSNjGM2s24TymRAYRUauS76bI=]

I halted, an unknown message just appeared. My partner and I broke off into two directions and examined the perimeter, no one. Was it a long range message? I start running it through any existing keys and found a match - coordinates.

The location was about an hour away from here...with the merchants being even closer to it. Considering the timing of the previous attack, we needed to investigate the coordinates first.

The shinies must have received the same message but it did not matter, none of them would be able to decipher it and even if they got lucky enough, they would need an appropriate mental map - one that they for sure lacked.

My partner waited next to me, giving me time to think.

“We’re going to look around, the location and timing of the attack...it’s too suspicious.”

I sent the message along with the coordinates. He nodded his head and we returned to the litter. The armed one had a more dangerous look, but he was still too scared to speak up even after I blatantly started leading them backwards from where we came from.

By the time we got there, there were a few rogue scouts around us. Too far to put down silently, and drawing attention was even worse. A single tower stood up from the ground. Withered and beaten by time, I ran it through my building scanner. It took a few seconds but a match popped up.

[Match found: Spriton Library. Show more info? Y/N]

‘Spriton...library…?’ A name resurfaced, ‘Jarrod’. I looked at the scythe in my hand, a reminder and promise made all those years ago.

**********