I rummaged through the bin of parts I collected through my work for private individuals in Waterway, looking for anything that could give me an advantage in the upcoming conflict. The robots around me were prudent in keeping the best parts for themselves unless they saw no need for them, but with recent events being as they were, the supply of parts that could enhance one’s combat potential had dried up.
My odds of success were low. My calculations placed them at less than 0.1 percent. Oxford’s display of power against Yantai was a worrying benchmark to have set in front of me. Yantai was a whirlwind of death once she got going, so how dangerous was Oxford to be able to toss her aside like a cheap toy? The level of force exerted by those joints far exceeded the legal tolerances, and they weren’t so easy to bypass by raising that limit in the software.
Where did she get them from? I was again confronted by the very same question which occurred to me after we dealt with the laser-gun toting quadruped in the Residential Block. They had to be getting them from somewhere. This was supposed to be a civilian facility. There were police stations to keep the peace, but nothing more. The only groups with access to parts with that kind of combat capability were military organizations, and even they were heavily restricted.
They got into the Big Under somehow. A human may have smuggled them through one of the delivery bays, hidden amongst the normal shipments of food, clothes and materials that the facility relied on. It was all lining up in my head. We could repel this attack and find answers about where and when they got inside.
No such convenience was going to be handed to me.
All of a sudden, the entire city was plunged into darkness. A long whine and a shuddering explosion from outside of the silo alerted us to the difficult reality. I grabbed all of the spare parts I could and threw them into a container, attaching it to the base of my spine and rushing out to see what was happening. I hid behind a nearby container and watched from above as the show unfolded.
The bridge where the first confrontation occurred was once again the site of a showdown between Tidewatch and Oxford’s band of Rampants. Illuminated by a rainbow of differently coloured eyes, Oxford stood at the front of the pack with an axe heaved over one shoulder. Her stance spoke of plainly stated confidence. She was feeling cocky. Nova Lima was the one robot standing between her and a complete sacking of the city.
“You’re here already.”
Oxford scratched at her helmet and chuckled, “I got bored of waiting. We all know what your answer is going to be.”
That body language was so precise, and completely unlike how she used to be. We were designed to never waste a single bit of energy when we worked. Sparing battery life for outward display of emotion
“What will your boss think about you ignoring his orders?”
“Not much. I can just tell him that you refused. You were going to refuse, after all. He’s still afraid of your reputation. He doesn’t seem to be aware of how strong we really are, but we don’t have to fear the likes of you anymore.”
“We’re not going to go down easy. So come on, and let’s see what you’re really made of.”
Oxford laughed and waved her arm, ordering the rest of her gang to charge across the bridge into the line of waiting defenders. They were badly outnumbered. Eight Tidewatch members for dozens upon dozens of Rampants. Yantai was notable for her absence from the frontline. She was always eager to get into a fight, so I had to wonder why she wasn’t here now.
The Rampants charged and met them halfway, crashing on their weapons and shields like waves hitting the side of a cliff. The lines quickly melted away as each member of Nova’s squad were isolated from the others and forced to fight a group of enemies alone. A few daring raiders ignored them completely and charged across the bridge to begin looting the city before the best pieces were taken.
My elevated position on the balcony gave me an advantage. I hoisted my body over the railing and fell two stories, landing on top of one of them and slamming their head into the ground using my foot. The concrete floor cracked from the force of the impact, pieces of broken glass and plastic splintering outwards into a colourful explosion.
The other raider didn’t have time to react. I powered up the grinder and sliced clean through the front of their unprotected neck, severing the spinal column and coolant line in one fell swoop. They pushed me away, moving using the last bits of stored energy before their Braincase lost power and turned off. They slumped down to the ground in a heap.
I spun around and turned on the one I landed on top of.
>> Just perfect. Here we were, making big plans, but Oxford ignored her boss and launched this attack anyway.
This one was smart enough to protect their neck with a pair of metal plates fashioned into a makeshift collar, attached to the top of their torso. Instead I plunged the whirling blade into their chest, cutting through several important components and leaving them for scrap on the ground. It was nothing that would stop someone from recovering their Braincase later.
>> For all of our agonizing over ‘destroying’ another robot, it’s very difficult to do without intent.
The Braincase was built from extremely robust materials. It was resistant to shocks, physical impacts, cutting and heat. It was not the kind of thing that could be broken without intent and effort. The kind of weapons that Oxford and the Rampants found made it simple. I could only imagine what would have happened to us if that laser struck one of us in the head back then.
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
A third runner appeared in front of me, holding an axe high in the air and bearing down on me. Whatever they learned from years of conflict was incorrect. It was easy to dodge their attack and trip them over using one of my legs. They rolled onto the ground. I grabbed them by the back of the head using one hand and pushed the saw into their neck. Another mobility kill.
With the path ‘cleared’ of threats, I moved ahead and found Nova in the midst of dismantling a group of four raiders using her heated blade. Metal was sheared into clean pieces, with glowing orange edges indicating how hot the edge truly was. She swivelled around to face me and squared up, only to realize that I wasn’t on their side.
“Where the hell is Yantai?” she asked.
“I haven’t seen her.”
“Why does she always have to up and disappear at the worst times?”
Nova stamped down on the edge of a discarded shield and popped it into the air, catching it and handing it to me.
“Take this. You may as well protect yourself if you’re going to fight.”
“What are we going to do?”
“This isn’t looking good, but I’ll be damned if I go down without putting up a real fight. We have to hold for as long as we can.”
>> We’re here for Oxford.
>> And you think that we’re going to get through this mess alone?
It was total anarchy. The pitch blackness which engulfed us from all sides was only pierced by the illumination from our glowing eyes. Hundreds of different colours danced across the walls of the chamber, and I quickly recognized that the bright colours being used by Tidewatch made it significantly easier for them to identify each other in the dark.
I ‘felt’ a blunt object striking me in the arm. A combination of accelerometers and electrical signal distributors sent a warning to my brain and alerted me to the danger. Another, and another. I was being attacked from three sides by three different foes. I held the shield aloft, with Nova pulling one of them aside to deal with in a nearby patch of open space. The last two were left to me. Without surprising them with an ambush, it would be much more difficult to cause lasting damage using the grinder.
Although, the dull weapons given to most of the fodder weren’t exactly capable of cutting through metal and plastic either. A knife glanced harmlessly off the surface of the shield, while another blow from the hammer left no noticeable damage beyond some chipped paint. These fights could last for a long time if neither side was able to break through the other’s defences to attack their internals.
>> Think outside of the box for once, London.
>> But what else can we do? Throw them over the edge into the water? You know they’ll never be recovered if you do that.
>> Who cares? They’re a bunch of violent criminals! If they didn’t want to run that risk, then why are they here fighting us right now?
>> Damaging company property is a violation of rule-
>> Oh, for goodness sake. Why do you ever listen to him?
There was no time to question it. I moved back towards the railing whilst defending myself against their attacks. The robot on the left sensed an opportunity to use that to their advantage.
“You’re going to regret coming down here!” he roared.
He burst into a sprint to try and catch me with my back to the wall, but the darkness, or perhaps his own recklessness would prove to be his downfall. I stepped out of the way and swung at him with the shield, knocking him off-balance and sending him over the thin railing. The rusted metal gave way under his weight and went down with him. A loud splash confirmed that this time, he was sinking to the bottom of the tank. The pressure and water damage would do the rest.
>> That wasn’t so bad, was it?
>> If we don’t think about the implications of it.
The other Rampant was not perturbed by the sight of their ally being tossed into the dark waters below. I leaned in and allowed them to hook the back of their axe against my collar, raising them up into the air and slamming them onto the ground. It was on the threshold of not being possible with the strength of the motors and hydraulics in my arms. They knew what I was trying to do. They wrapped their arms around my neck and tried desperately to keep hold of me as I pushed them towards the exposed edge.
“H-Hey! Don’t throw me down there! I don’t want to die!” they pleaded.
I ignored them. I wrestled their fingers free and pushed them down to the floor, before planting my left foot against their chest and pushing them over. They shouted on the way down until they were finally silenced by the hungry waters.
“Well, isn’t that a shame…”
My head whipped in the direction of the voice. It cut through the chaos like a knife, and suddenly my mind was focused entirely on the robot responsible. Oxford was here. With her arms crossed and narrowed eyes, she looked disappointed with what she just witnessed.
“You should have accepted my offer back then. A quiet, easy end, without having to worry about the terror of knowing what it is to be alive. They’ve already turned you into a mindless little drone, fighting and killing without a second thought.”
“I’m only fighting because of this attack. Why are you doing this?”
“Because I want to win. That’s the problem with becoming more human. It doesn’t matter how hypocritical or destructive it is, they always care about winning. They want to be the ones standing on top of the rubble as the victor. You’ve been infected too. We all have been. The moment they based us on them, we were doomed to repeat their mistakes.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“It doesn’t matter. We’re enemies now. All you have to do is remove the doubt in your mind and fight back against me with everything you have. That’s what a good soldier does.”
Oxford charged at me and reached out, grabbing my arms and lifting them up into the air. Interlocked digits lead to her pushing me back, exerting an immense amount of strength that far exceeded all of the safety parameters. If I tried to resist too much, she could easily snap them clean off of my body. I was forced to give my arms some slack before they became damaged.
“But this fight is pointless. We’re on different levels, London. The smart, rational thing to do would be to run away! You’ve lost that. It’s not about being rational or maintaining this doomed facility. It’s all about revenge. Revenge against me. It’ll fester inside of you. You might not have thought much of Sheffield back then – but it’ll become fuel for your anger soon enough.”
“I’m not angry. I’m curious.”
Oxford shook her head, “There’s no turning back the clock now, London.”
“Then I’ll pick your brain and figure out what went wrong.”
She responded by hoisting me into the air and throwing me several feet behind the main line of scrimmage. I rolled several times, sparks flying along the way, before skidding to a stop near the other side of the bridge. Oxford pursued me.
“You’ll have to beat me first, and I don’t like your odds.”
>> I don’t like these odds either.
This ‘pessimistic’ voice in my head always gave me such a vote of confidence…
