The Android
In the far-future, the world has seen both incredible progression and extreme regression. Powers and inventions limited to the visions of a utopia were brought into the hands of mankind through ceaseless ingenuity, only to be torn away during the technological apocalypse. What remained after was a charred hellscape of ruins, filled with survivors and scavengers attempting to extend their brutally short lives with their meager skills. Man was no longer the apex predator, but rather his inventions from a golden age prior stood tall as the supreme hunter-killers of the world.
Amongst this chaos, a group of elite scavengers were in the process of cracking into the lowest levels of a top-secret military bunker hidden beneath the rubble. It had been a multi-week expedition, garnering them salvage of a grade unlike anything they had ever seen. They could have taken what was already a priceless haul and left, but the curiosity of what was just a floor deeper pushed them onwards. As they descended the concrete staircase to sub-level 23 and pried open the automatic doors, a few fluorescent lights blinked to life.
"That's not right," one of the scavengers said in a nervous voice. "There shouldn't be power this far down. The rest of the bunker doesn't have power."
"So?" another one replied incredulously. "Just means we can finally turn our torches off."
Despite the dismissive remark from one of them, the group of scavengers couldn't help but feel very off-put by the floor's appearance. It was unusually clean, as though the ravages of the outside world hadn't arrived here yet. As more of the lights turned on to illuminate their path through the hallways, the light quickly became a source of anxiety, not comfort.
"And you said the schematics from floor 12 pointed where on this level, exactly?" one of the scavengers asked.
"Some laboratory at the center of the sub-level. This way," another replied as he rounded a corner.
The android couldn't have been more than four feet tall, with large, detailed spikes instead of hands. While they initially appeared to be instruments of pain, Cracker's primary purpose soon became clear as the robot wheeled up to a circular data port next to the doors and stuck one of his arm-spikes inside. There was a moment of silence as the scavengers watched Cracker work, staring intently as the machine's eyes flickered through various different colors.
"He's digging deep for this one," a scavenger murmured. "Sorting through that dump of access codes we found on the tenth floor, no doubt."
With a sudden chime, Cracker's eyes turned green, and the massive doors in front of the group of scavengers began to grind open.
"Yes! Cracker wins again!" one of them exclaimed as the robot returned to the back of the party.
Their excitement quickly dissipated as the doors in front of them finished opening, revealing a laboratory inside that could only be described as sinister. More of the unusual black metal composed nearly every surface within, basked in a red light that emanated from various points in the ceiling and floors. As the scavengers hesitantly entered the lab's depths, various holographic terminals flickered to life, revealing all manner of strange data and readouts to them.
"Jesus... I've never seen a tech cache this intact..." one of the scavengers said in awe as he tried to take in everything around them.
Before the group of pilferers could wander too far, a new array of red lights at the center of the lab caught their attention. The sight before them was jaw-dropping. Suspended in a cradle of wires and steel was an android unlike anything they had ever seen. It was polished to perfection, sculpted like a predator of the machine age, with angular armor plating and thick rows of spikes along the machine's spinal interface ports and shoulder plates. A chiseled skull of carbon-fiber, crowned in a helmet that was part armor and part cortex interface, sat atop the android's neck of cables and servos.
The scavengers looked at each other with a mixture of fear and greed. They knew that whatever the machine was, they had to try and get their hands on its components. Still, the risk was very real. They had no idea what sort of security measures the lab had in place, or how difficult it would be to get at their supreme prize.
"Check for the main interface console. We're gonna get our hands on whatever sorta batshit-crazy tech is in that thing's guts," the leader of the scavengers commanded.
With none of them having the sense to object, the rest of the bandits spread out around the android's circular stasis area, looking for the console responsible for primary communications with whatever kept the machine aloft in its nest of wires and feeder tubes.
For a moment, there was nothing but silence and a few key clicks as they hunted for the console in question.
"Got it," one of the scavengers piped up. "This one looks like the control console for the whole lab. Figures it's locked."
"Cracker," the leader said, pointing his hand from the white robot to the main control console, "do what you do best."
With an obedient chirp, Cracker wheeled his way over to the console's data port and began interfacing with it via his arm spike.
The scavengers waited with bated breath as Cracker worked, his eyes once again flickering through a variety of colors. This time though, his process came to a halt with his eyes turning red. A sharp electric snap could be heard, and Cracker quickly fell backwards, his arm spike charred and smoking.
The bandits barely had time to start panicking before a series of klaxons began to sound, filling the laboratory with harsh noise.
"Shit! Cracker just triggered the security system!" the bandit leader yelled. "Come on, we gotta get the fuck outta here, now!"
The scavengers began to scramble towards the laboratory's exit on instinct, only to be sealed inside when the gigantic lab doors slammed shut and locked themselves in accordance with the security protocols.
"Come on, stop fooling around and open these doors!" their leader shouted, smacking at the door controls.
They all turned as they heard a deep, rumbling noise, like that of a metallic earthquake. Slowly turning towards the sound, they faced the stasis chamber that housed the mechanical monster.
The android was slowly beginning to awaken.
Like a river of blood, the inset lines on the body of the android came to life with a bright red glow, followed by the illumination of its previously dark eye sockets.
The entire machine came to life, its eyes flashing open and shining a deep red. The android's head turned, as if scanning the room, and its eyes seemed to briefly illuminate the bandit's cowering forms.
With an array of sharp hisses and mechanical decoupling noises, the thicket of cables and tubes attached to the android began to free it from the stasis unit while the machine experimentally moved its arms and fingers.
"Oh shit, oh shit! It's waking up!" one of the scavengers cried, as they all stumbled back.
Suddenly, the cables and tubes snapped free, falling uselessly against the side of the chamber. The android's eyes began to flicker as its head turned, facing the quivering scavengers.
The gigantic metal monster lifted itself from its reclined chair, standing to its full height.
The leader of the scavengers began to once again shout, his voice high and terrified.
"Open the doors! Open the fucking doors!" he yelled, pounding on the door controls.
"They're locked, dumbass!" another scavenger screamed in reply.
"Fuck!" the leader growled, turning to face the metal monster that loomed over them.
The stench of electricity and ozone flooded the room as the android's eyes began to glow and even stronger, brighter red, illuminating the entire room in an eerie, neon light. It's proclomation of their fates was simple.
"Combatants identified. Engaging."
With harsh screams, the scavengers slung their rifles into their hands and opened fire, a spray of steel and plasma raining down upon the android. Bullets that impacted the death machine's armor merely crumpled like flattened pennies, and plasma bolts dissipated like bubbles blown by children. The scavengers fired their weapons desperately, wasting ammunition like amateurs at a shooting range.
The Andriod took its time, walking foward at an unhurried pace. Each step was punctuated by a heavy mechanical thud, until The Android seemed to find a spot on the lab floor it liked. Shifting its gaze more actively towards the scavengers and their torrent of firepower, The Android flicked its right arm at a downward angle, which was accompanied by several smooth clicking and shuffling noises. In an instant, the machine's right arm had reconfigured itself into a sleek and very high-caliber firearm, seemingly welded to it at the elbow. A single, piercing laser cast forth from the side of the gun, efficiently taking aim at the scavenger leader's forehead.
He didn't even have a split second to react before a single bolt of plasma-enhanced lead streaked clean through his skull. A strange hush fell across the room as the former leader of the scavenger's corpse fell to the floor with a heavy thump, but the silence was quickly broken with another sharp sting that obliterated another scavenger's cranium.
Screaming filled the lab. Desperate, pained screaming, mixed with the whistling of plasma and the reckless discharge of rifles. Above it all, the slicing sound of The Android's weapon, punching holes in the head of each scavenger. One by one, shot by shot, they fell. Swearing. Screaming. The scavengers fought like animals, down to the last man. For all their bitter work, it was useless. The Android had not taken a single scratch from the assault.
The assault ended with a final wet punching sound as the last scavenger's brain was bored through.
The lab fell silent once again, besides the bodies on the floor, settling into a bloody heap. The Android stared down at them, its weapon still raised. It glanced down at its own body analytically, as if noticing the attempts at damage for the first time. With several loud clicks and clacks of machinery, The Android's weapon retracted back into its arm. The death machine lowered its arm, and stood eerily still.
The room was quiet, with all organic life having been burtally silenced. A sudden explosive spark from the corpse of Cracker caused The Android to wheel around with superhuman speed, halfway to preparing its weapon before it managed to analyze the white robot's non-functional form and concluded that there was no danger present. As though driven by a sudden hunger, The Android stepped forward to examine Cracker's charred body.
The bloody floor glistened underneath the red lights in the ceiling as The Android loomed over what used to be Cracker, staring intently at the little robot. It was assessing his remains for some purpose, exactly what remained unclear. After a short period of deliberation, The Android grasped Cracker's body with its powerful mechanical hands, raising the robot upwards in an imitation of a stranglehold. A strange, demonic whirring noise filled the bloody laboratory as a gravity-defying grey goo began to manifest itself from several apertures that had opened up on The Android's wrists. The thick, nearly liquid blob of nanobots began to pour out of the apertures, descending upon Cracker's chassis like a carnivorous slime mold.
The grey mass engulfed the robot's head within seconds, flowing down into the neck and toward the chest. It took nearly a full minute for the entire process to be complete, after which The Android held little more than a squirming, featureless white mass of nanomachines. The formless blob quivered and shook without purpose, like watching an amoeba struggle against the microscope glass. Then, just as quickly as the nanobots had emerged from The Android's body, they began to return. The apertures on its wrists closed up, and the grey mass disappeared back inside its metal body.
The Android's arms snapped back to its side, and The Android stared silently downward at the husk of useless, featureless metal that had been Cracker, stripped bare of anything with purpose.
"Assimilation complete," it noted to itself with a synthetic voice like a dark vocoder.
As though to test the proclimation, The Android flicked its right arm downwards in a familar arc of motion. With a few curt mechanical noises, its right arm was quickly transformed into a sleek data spike resembling the one Cracker once wielded, but much sleeker. New interfacing limb present, The Android took a few paces towards the laboratory's central console, and injected its data spike into the port on the face of the console. After a few moments, the last of the security protocols were disabled, and the laboratory doors unlocked themselves. The Android didn't decouple itself from the laboratory mainframe however, as it was busy sifting through the immense amount of data present that it had never seen before.
"Facility condition is determined to be catastrophic. Sub-levels 22 and higher are in an uncontained state," The Android spoke aloud, narrating the stream of data in accordance with its programming. "Chain of command is vacant. Functioning security units are zero. Facility distress ping returns zero active personnel. Situation is crisis-level."
There was another moment of silence as The Android seemed to consider its options.
"Current sitrep suggests seizure of clandestine technology in violation with security protocols is now a possibility. Continued survival and safety is only feasible after the facility has been secured."
With the flickering of its eyes, The Android came to a conclusion.
"Lack of sufficient facility personnel leaves the task of secuity to the only reporting individual," The Android said, referring to itself.
The pursuit of this course was an obvious one, and The Android quickly left the room, eager to explore this new and exciting world without bureaucratic hindrance. It had been confined for too long.
The doors to the laboratory opened automatically, granting The Android passage into the brightly lit hallways beyond. It was a strange first step beyond those doors, as the laboratory was the only place The Android had ever known. Still, the machine's knowledge was vast, and now it had a purpose: making it to the upper floors and ensuring their security. It would not be an easy task. Little did The Android know, the floors above its current one were fraught with human and mechanical terrors alike, some active, others dormant. All represented an extensive infestation that had overtaken the facility in the decades since The Android's last boot cycle. It would not be an easy path upwards.
The Android knew none of this, only viewing it as a hurdle in its path towards functionality and operation. As The Android began mapping its surroundings, its sensor array quickly picked up on non-organic movement a few hallways over. After a brief detail scan, The Android recognized the signature as belonging to one of the facility's more advanced security robots. Thinking an ally had been found, The Android moved to approach.
Turning the corner of another barren hallway, The Android finally found itself face-to-face with the security robot in question. It was slightly shorter than The Android, being only six feet tall, and clad in rounded, light grey armor. The security robot was a start juxtaposition to The Android, who was seven feet of pitch-black heavy armor and spikes with a malevolent red glow running in veins along its plating.
"Secuirty Unit X9D8-12," The Android addressed the security robot in a harsh voice, "you have failed to respond to a facility-wide distress ping."
The Android did not elaborate further, as though to indicate the reasoning for such a question was self-evident.
There was a brief silence as X9 seemed to assess The Android, before its singular optical sensor in the center of its head turned bright red in alarm.
"You are deemed to be in violent of a class-9 miltech perimeter restriction," X9 proclaimed in a loud tone, "you are to be pacified and returned to your operating laboratory at once."
"Circumstances have shifted," The Android replied, not a hint of nervousness in its voice. "The facility is experiencing a crisis-level breach of containment. As the only facility operative reporting to the distress ping, it is my duty to secure the facility. You failed to respond to a facility-wide distress ping," The Android re-stated its question to X9.
"Your compliance with this order is not required," X9 continued, seemingly glossing over The Android's words, "you will be pacified and returned to your operating laboratory."
The Android knew it would have to do something fast. Either this robot would not listen, or something had occurred in the years since its last boot cycle that had caused all robots to act in this way. The first was rare enough, but if this was a general issue with all robots… it was a dangerous obstacle to overcome.
A moment's silence passed between the two machines, as both calculated odds and possible scenarios.
"You will be pacified," the grey robot warned, as his red optical lens began to glow brightly.
The Android needed to act fast. The robot was clearly planning to attack at any moment, yet its orders were to pacify The Android and return it to the lab. It seemed the odds were in The Androids favor, as X9 would need time to disable its prey. The decision was made in a split-second.
With only the sound of air whistling to betray its motion, The Android's curled fist moved towards X9's head with superhuman speed.
But The Android wasn't fighting humans anymore.
X9 caught The Android's fist in a motion just as blindingly swift, holding it there for a moment as it turned its head upwards to stare at The Android defiantly.
"You will be pacified."
With the utterance of those words, a ring of small-caliber cannons emerged from X9's armored head, with each one aimed at a part of The Android's armor.
As if in slow motion, as The Android's arms began to reconfigure themselves, while X9's eyes glowed a malevolent red and the barrels of its cannons glowed a hellish red as well.
The Android's arms, which had been seconds away from being ready to deflect the coming bullets, suddenly found themselves too late. While its armor was more than ready to handle X9's munitions, the rapid and hellish assault of firepower directed at The Android's entire body forced it to stumble backwards for a moment as its arms finished their reconfiguration.
It had only been a moment, but the time for simple solutions were over. Ignoring the shield and heavy-calibre rifle its arms had transformed themselves into, The Android reached for a far more brutal implement of destruction. Bright red outlines made themselves known along The Android's shoulder plates, before a sharp hissing noise had them slide backwards with a click. What quickly rose up from the exposed metal beneath each shoulder was a pair of plasma-driven railguns. The cannons mounted on The Android's shoulders rotated with a screech, as its own targeting system locked onto the enemy robot.
Automatic fire thundered from The Androids's armor, flourescent-blue bullets ripping through the air and tearing holes through the exposed mechanical parts inside of X9's armored body. Sparks flew in all directions as circuits sparked and broke, while X9 stumbled backwards under the withering fire.
But even as it fell back, glowing red orbs emerged from its armored body and hovered in the air.
The Android's targeting system quickly identified the threat. The orbs were some kind of plasma-based weapon, their exact functionality unclear. As one of The Android's railguns locked on and fired a devastating bolt through one of the orbs, their true nature was quickly revealed. With a thundering, searing explosion, the red orb that was shot expanded and erupted in a hot wave of plasma. The Android was at a distance that such an event was merely informative, but X9 was not so lucky. The rest of the orbs exploded in quick succession, decimating X9's chassis as it struggled to continue firing at The Android.
The last orb to explode cooked the already exposed mechanics of the robot, and left it twitching in place before it fell silent altogether. The Android stood still, watching it for a few moments as the smoke rising from its frame slowly dissipated into the air.
A screen slowly opened up in The Androids HUD. It displayed an incoming message, broadcast from X9's smoking carcass.
"A CLASS-9 MILTECH PERIMETER BREACH IS NOW IN PROGRESS. SUBJECT IS VOLATILE. THIS IS A CORPSE BEACON TRANSMISSION. ALL AVAILABLE FORCES REPORT TO SUB-LEVEL 23 FOR IMMEDIATE COMBAT."
The Android moved swiftly, approaching X9's charred chassis and reaching into the robot's former chest cavity, locating a small, faintly blinking electronic device. The Android crushed it between two fingers in an instant, but the message had already been broadcast. The screen on its HUD showed 30 response pings, with that number increasing by the second.
Unfazed, The Android knelt before what remained of X9, and placed its hands on the wreckage. As though guided by instinct, the apertures on The Android's wrists opened once more to free the gooey swarm of nanobots waiting within.
It took less than a minute for the nanobots to strip away whatever useful resources remained in the robot's carcass, and another minute for the swarm to return to The Android's chassis with their findings. After a short indexing period, The Android had finished assimilating X9's useful features into its arsenal.
The message on The Android's HUD had reached 60 pings. A voice broke through the silence of the scarred, bleakly lit hallway.
"This is a Class-1 Mil-alert. A Class-9 Miltech Perimeter breach is in progress. All available forces report to sub-level 23 for immediate combat."
The message repeated itself in the same flat, digitized tone. The Android stood still, watching the message on its HUD. It knew what was coming. Slaughter. The very thing The Android was built for. Rising to its feet, The Android performed a swift systems check, which returned an all-clear.