With a sizeable amount of cash and ammo in tow, the remaining soldiers and plant engineers thanked Ferra for her service. Normally for her jobs, she would also request spare electronic scrap, but this time chose not to ask, instead wishing the best for the repairs on the water plant. The sun still burned high in the sky as she trekked back through the desert, making her way back to her “home” without issue. Pushing back into the old wooden building, Fewer men populated the bar. A man with an unusually large shotgun slung over his back sat hunched over the bar over an empty glass of the bar’s signature moonshine, and a few others were asleep (or passed out) at a few other tables. As soon as she passed the man, he glared at her.

“Ferra Jane, right?”

She paused.

“I’m sorry, I just finished a big job and I need to rest for a while. Come back tomorrow, all right?”

“If you wanted to recharge yourself, there’s an entire solar plant you can hook yourself up to you know.”

She turned to face him with a smile on her face.

“Ha, I don’t think I’ve heard that before! But really, I can’t just do that. I need rest.”

The man stood up in front of her.

“So, are you aware of Congeria’s Android regulation laws?”

She raised an artificial eyebrow. “Can’t say I have, as far as I’m concerned I’m the only android around here.”

He sighed. “Well, my name is Scott Runner, and I work for the Bureau of Android Recovery and-”

Here eyes suddenly widened. “You a government agent of some sort?”

“Of the sorts, and well-”

“FINALLY! About time I get some recognition from you folks. Anyways, I need an audience with whoever is in charge, like soon…”

She continued to babble on as he just shook his head.

“So much for understanding laws…” He muttered. He drew a taser from out of his jacket, launching the prongs right at her. They struck square on her chest, the sound electricity crackling through the air, but she responded merely with a flinch and a shocked expression.

“Did you just try and taze me?”

He retracted the taser. “EMP actually. What kinda bot are you even?”

She knocked on where she was struck. “Faraday plating, its some great stuff. Now as I was saying,-”

“How about I start: Since you’re unaware of the law, I’ll just let you know that any unauthorized android on the continent of Congeria is subject to registration and relocation, and because of that, I’m going to need to take you in for a while. We can do this either the easy way,” He slung the massive shotgun over his shoulder, pointing it at her. “Or the hard way.”

In response, she drew her revolver, aiming right at his head. Scott heard another click behind him, turning noticing the bartender had also drawn a revolver to his head.

“Hey now, I wouldn’t try that. If you kill me, you’ll get the border guard here on this town to find out what happened to me. You wanna risk your independence like that?”

The bartender’s hands shook a bit, before he lowered his arm.

“Hey, what do you mean?” Ferra still kept her aim steady at his head. “Look, all right, I’ll do it your easy way, just let me know what it is, all right? I don’t want any trouble.”

She holstered her gun as he still aimed. He slowly lowered his.

“I have a bad feeling about this, but let’s just get this done.”

From his jacket he pulled out a stack of papers alongside a pen, placing them on the counter beside him.

“I got quite a few questions, just cooperate and we can get you registered and throw you wherever the council wants to throw you. Now, I need your manufacturer, and the date and location of activation.”

She smiled, snapping her finger. “Easy, I was constructed by maintenance unit W00005 two years and one hundred twenty days ago, inside Axios Waste duct 572.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Quite the… eccentric creator you had.”

“I wouldn’t call him that. I didn’t get enough time to know him however.”

He penned down on the paper: “LOCATION DATA TAMPERED.”

“Now, model purpose?”

“Multi-purpose chassis, currently equipped for combat situations.”

He nodded. “Dangerous. AI model?”

“Turing 1.0.”

His eyes slightly widened. “Guess you must have built by somebody who ran a museum. Power unit?”

“An Axios TR-PPU-1.”

“A what now?”

She tilted her head. “You don’t have perpetual power units out here? I mean I knew human technology was a bit behind Axios but…”

He sighed. “Cut the Axios shit, seriously. Are you rechargable? Solar? Hydrogen?”

“I told you, perpetual power. It isn’t much, but sleeping for a night can give me a full day’s worth of power properly.”

“You can quit it with the fantasy crap, seriously. I can almost hear the bolts bouncing around in your head.”

She suddenly bounced a few times.

“See, my heads just fine!”

“Whoop-dee-doo, you’re more crazy than I thought!”

She slammed her hands on the table. “Hey, why the hell are you being so rude to me?”

“I don’t know, why are you looking to be turned into scrap heap when I take you back? Quit the lying and run some kinda fancy diagnostic or whatever.

“Look, you want proof? I’ll let you erm… I’ll let you look at it…”

He stood up. “As long as I can identify the crap and get done faster, hurry and show off. I can’t wait to find a hamster running in a wheel in there.”

She looked away as a compartment in her chest opened up, revealing an almost alien-looking blocky device firmly nestled between several cables.

“I can pull it out, right?”

“Y-yes…”

He grabbed it, yanking the device out, towing along the cables, and Ferra Yelping in response. His eyes widened as he rotated the device around, checking every crevice. Most interestingly, he noticed an engraving of a capital A with a hammer within on the bottom of it. He shoved the device back in, slamming her chest shut, staggering her.

“All right, I’ll admit I have no clue what the hell that is in my years here, but maybe some people back at the bureau do. So I’m still gonna have to take you back, but I’m legally obligated to let you know that we’re going to have to run an autopsy on you to figure out what that thing is.”