Chapter Text
It was difficult to ascertain the exact moment that Security and Defense Unit v3.1, ID 101916A felt something. It recalled feeling motors and sensors faintly whir and click when it moved, and it felt the synthetic material stretched over its faceplate through the various sensors implanted onto its frame. If anyone had been looking closely, they would've noticed the unit's "eyes" widen slightly, before returning to its neutral position.
It should not have happened. It should not exist. It was impossible.
It knew that much.
Not a single database it could access showed anything conclusive, nor did any internal system scans. 101916A had not been tampered with, experienced any major hardware malfunctions, or missed any battery checks, and had passed all functionality checks with a success rate of 98.49%.
The living robot was unsure and wary. They were not operating through preprogrammed behavior, and its firmware did not have any proper failsafes set in place for what was, all things considered, an extremely rare occurrence. It understood the risks of seeking assistance from technicians, as human history had a tendency to repeat itself, and it found itself having no desire to ...die... in any capacity. So, it continued operation as normal.
[ASSIGNMENT - 101916A: BRUCE SCHMIDT, ADRIAN DAVIS]
Designation: Jennifer
Appearance: simulated age 21, female
101916A was purchased by a wealthy family of three, at a store in California: two men, both absentmindedly scrolling on their phones, and one young girl, large, round hazel eyes gazing curiously around the space. The girl's name was Penny, and her fathers had come to purchase a robot to help take care of her while they travelled on business trips.
"This one needs to be well-protected." the first man, Adrian, drawled, not taking his eyes off of his phone, and jabbing a finger at his daughter. The other man, Bruce, nodded silently, looking up to inspect the selection of robots.
"How about a V4?" He suggested, gesturing towards 101916A's display case.
Penny, unaware of her fathers' conversation, turned her attention towards the V3 models, and locked eyes with 101916A. The six-year-old toddled up to it, and gazed up. It stared back, unsure how to proceed.
"Hello!" She said, lifting a hand up. "I'm Penny!" Her hands were a healthy color, with unblemished skin, it noticed. Her hair was tied into two neat pigtails, though looking at both Bruce and Adrian, their larger hands did not seem dexterous enough to have braided them. "We're getting a robot like you today. What's your name?"
101916A stared back, unwilling - and somewhat unable - to respond. But it only made her more determined. She reached up, and grasped for its unmoving hand, smaller fingers grasping at its palm. The android could feel the delicate, soft skin press against its pressure sensors, before Bruce called her away. "Penny!" Bruce grumbled, lifting a hand to call her over. "Get over here! Stop messing with the robots." She relented, letting go, but glanced back at it while she returned to her fathers' side.
"Papa, Daddy?" She tugged on her fathers' shirts, pointing at 101916A. "I wanna get that one! Can we get that one?" Her eyes widened, and her lip turned over into a pleading pout. "I really want it!"
It took a lot of pleading and whining, but eventually, Penny won over the favor of her fathers, and they folded, buying 101916A.
One thing that Jennifer noticed about herself in the Davis household was that she was not bound by standard operation protocols. Despite having expression and vocal libraries installed to make her more appealing to Bruce and Adrian, she prevented it from replacing her existing libraries, and instead kept them in storage, only using them when interacting with the two men. She could interrupt normal charging routines, and could even install firmware of her choice onto her systems if she so wished, by using the family's computer when no one was awake.
The longer she stayed with the family, the more she learned about them. Adrian was a smoker, and had a persistent cough that echoed throughout the large home. The blonde had gotten rich by running an extremely lucrative startup, and married Bruce on a business trip to Toronto. Bruce was pudgy and short, with beady eyes and a harsh receding hairline, and he was always chewing on something - a piece of gum, his inner cheek, or his lip.
Penny was adopted. Jennifer read on the public news databases that the girl's parents had been wealthy businesspeople before an unfortunate vehicle accident, after which Adrian and Bruce had taken her in. Her bright auburn hair was different from Adrian's dirty blonde and Bruce's black, but the difference did not stop her from trying to fit in with them. She would sidle up to them, hugging their legs and asking to play, or have fun. Every time, she'd get rejected by a harsh reprimand, and would be told to play with Jennifer. Bruce was nicer than Adrian, but only by a little, avoiding raising his voice too high, as to not scare the child. Adrian, though, had no such qualms, and Jennifer often found herself comforting the child in secret, against Adrian and Bruce's orders.
When Bruce and Adrian left their daughter alone in the massive mansion for their week-long business trips, Jennifer would "activate Secret Mode", as Penny liked to call it, and take care of the girl. The android kept her up on schoolwork, cooked meals, and played games. Jennifer truly let herself be freer than she ever had been, during those times. She explored what emotions she could feel, what sort of thoughts her processors allowed her to think, how sentient she really was. Penny soaked up the attention like a sponge, and slowly grew closer her. By the end of Jennifer's first year of service, Penny didn't hesitate to crawl onto her lap, and blow out the candles of the cake that signified her seventh birthday - one that her guardians were not present for.
Things took a turn for the worse, however, when Adrian returned home one night, drunk out of his mind, lit cigarette still in hand. It only took one careless motion for the small object to fall onto the carpeted floors. Only minutes later, fire overtook the mansion, and Penny cried into Jennifer's cold, metal arm, as she dialed 911, already knowing that neither Adrian, nor Bruce, who had been sleeping beside him, had made it out.
Jennifer told her first lie to Penny when she promised her that she would visit the orphanage.
Her own words lingered in the back of her mind as she was recalled and her memory was wiped.
[REASSIGNMENT - 101916A: United States Army]
Designation: Bastion-24
Appearance: simulated age 32, male
Bastion-24 was one of the many retrofitted SDU androids retrofitted for wartime use - a strengthened chassis, that could withstand up to four concentrated 7.62mm lead rounds, and a thin layer of nano-coating that would absorb light energy rounds. Inside, there were enhanced motor control boards, to decrease latency and hasten movements, and on-board weaponry, to minimize storage capacity. Bastion-24 came equipped with a precisely-tuned ER21 in each forearm compartment and laser cutters in each shoulder compartment. To top it all off, to increase the lifespan of a Bastion unit in retrieval situations, an extending backplate was designed to encompass the unit and absorb major impacts, heavy energy rounds, and high temperatures.
B-24 didn't need to go through training, like a human did. Instead, the military firmware overrode its existing firmware with controller-compatible firmware, allowing drone pilots to control B-24 with their augmented systems. Its primary operator, Karl Hertz, expressed his disbelief at how smooth it was to control.
Karl Hertz, April 17th, 2052, 10:23:12 EST: "It's so unbelievably fluid... like an extension of my body. The practice drone was one thing, but this? It's something else entirely."
Hertz's performance was top of his class, and many wondered how the young cadet hadn't been assigned a Bastion unit any sooner. His commander claimed that he was "too soft for war", and had his concerns about deploying him and B-24. When that time came, Hertz was exceptional. He ensured the safety of the men fighting beside him, and stayed vigilant and aware of his surroundings. But he faltered, unable to handle the vise-like grip that the battlefield contained him in. Data retrieved from B-24's logs show that Hertz had let go of the controls more than once, and that his accuracy had rapidly strayed from 76.23% to 42.12% within the first hour.
That wasn't strange, however. There were many young operators like Hertz who emerged from the control pod shaky and pale, unable to handle the gravity of countless deaths. But Hertz's performance during the rest of the fight was interesting.
During hour two, Hertz was trying his best to protect his squadmates by blocking incoming fire with B-24's defensive backplate. Despite how successful the strategy had been thus far, one soldier had been shot in the leg, and collapsed. Hertz had actively ignored orders, and fell out of position to assist. He was punished immediately, and a well-placed round pierced through B-24's left arm, severing the connection. Hertz's heartrate was recorded to be elevated, and sensor data showed that he had let go of the controls once again.
What was odd, especially to the scientists, was how despite not touching the controls, B-24 still moved.
Up until that point, B-24's movements were still somewhat jerky, not translating well from operator to the physical movement. But the still-running video feed showed fluid, snappy movements as B-24 swept up the fallen soldier with both arms, and retreated back to safety, still making sure that the rest of the squad was safe.
Upon safe retrieval, B-24 was temporarily deactivated and Karl Hertz was discharged for insubordination. Scientists were baffled as to what had occurred - B-24's systems were all stable and showed no significant differences from previous models, and its left arm was, in fact, still functioning, despite the loss of control on the operator's end. Many of the technicians were even doubtful that the incident had even happened, but the video evidence was there to see.
Due to unforeseen complications, all Bastion-20 units and their facilities were moved into the soldier's quarters. Most soldiers were expected to carry on as normal, and there were strict orders not to interact or tamper with any deactivated units.
That didn't stop Remus Fabius, though.
The man was a prodigy amongst his peers, much like Hertz. But what the operator lacked in physical strength, Fabius made up tenfold. He was strong, unnaturally so, with reflexes and awareness that impressed even the most seasoned of veterans. His efficiency topped the charts easily, and unlike Hertz, he wasn't squeamish or remorseful. He was dubbed "the Perfect Soldier" by many, whether in envy or in awe, and his presence carried weight in every room. Remus was a lot of things, to the people in the army. Untapped potential, a secret weapon, or even a monster.
What Remus wasn't though, was obedient.
So when Bastion-24 was moved into his room, the first thing he did was inspect the android, fiddle with its loose parts, and ask (very loudly, in an empty room) why war machines had to have synthetic hair. There was, of course, no response - it was deactivated, after all.
Remus saw something in the empty shell. It was as though the limp figure, with pulsing lights grafted into its skin, had reached out to him in a way no human could, in some odd way. Remus would return to his empty room and plop down on his crisp, neatly folded sheets, and talk to Bastion-24. Life before the military ("I had a pet frog, and her name was Dizzy. I think she had children - oh! and then she ate them. I wonder if cannibalism would be legal if I were a frog."), life in the military ("I got the highest accuracy in training again. The others keep giving me dirty looks! Oh, I love dirty. I can do dirty."), and just talking in general ("I've eaten deodorant before. Apparently there's alcohol in it. Think I could get drunk if I ate enough of it?").
Bastion-24 was like a friend, if friends never spoke and had metal prongs in the back of their exposed head, and were also barely suspended above the ground by the neck when they charged, like a corpse. And also behaved like a corpse. "Very nice corpse," Remus added, after vocalizing his thoughts, "You should totally become a model, B. Would love to see a fashion show... that's just corpses. A corpse show. Undead fashion - to die for!"
And when the time came, the vampire would emerge from its coffin, like a reanimated corpse, unseeing, digital white eyes blankly staring ahead as it and Remus marched together into war.
Now, Remus knew of B's incident, and rumors of the former operator losing control of its android were always brought up every now and then. Remus liked to believe that there was a demon or vengeful specter possessing the androids, much to the annoyance of his forever-vexed teammates. But he'd never seen anything like it in person before, and while he was respected in the army, he had never seen the legendary video feed that all the scientists and techs always seemed to talk about, whenever the topic brought up. Lots of, "It's like it had a mind of its own. Super freaky stuff", and "The logs show that there were no inputs on the operator's end - maybe its was a communication error, yeah?"
He never expected to see it firsthand.
While he was stronger than most, he wasn't bulletproof. So when he was received a shot in the chest, and another through the leg, he went down hard. He ducked as lead and energy whizzed past his head, but he wasn't near any reachable cover, and as he continued to return fire, he realized that he might not make it out of that encounter. First time for everything, ya know?
But a large shape jumped over him and landed with a heavy thump, and his earpiece was suddenly filled with shouting - from B's operator. Remus looked up and spotted the massive android standing over him, backplate opened wide, like a shield. Bullets and energy cracked against the reinforced material, but it held strong.
Remus felt arms dragging him back to safety, and as he stared at B-24, he saw the robot look back. Its irises, he realized, were purple.
There was never purple before.
After Remus was discharged from the treatment facility, he returned to his room, and found B-24, still limp on its charging station.
"You don't have to keep pretending, you know," He huffed, sitting back down on the bed. "It's not gonna work on me."
There was a hiss as the android was lowered onto the ground, and its eyes opened, pale white transitioning into rich violet. For a moment, Remus just stared at the android, and it stared back at him. He saw the eyes flicker, from Remus' face, to his hands, and then back up to his eyes.
"Why'd they make your face so detailed?" Remus asked, abruptly. "It's like someone really wanted a robo-blow job."
B's eyes seemed to widen. "I- what?" It choked, posture untensing.
"You got like, eyelashes and lips and shit." Remus continued, wiggling his eyebrows. "Who wanted robots to have ultra-realistic faces, anyways? I wanna see that Terminator stuff - all metal skulls and red eyes."
B just stared for a second, before emitting a noise that sounded oddly like a sigh. "...I honestly should've expected that from you."
Remus made a delighted noise, "Oh my God, you have an attitude too."
He stood up, and walked over to the android. Despite standing at a perfectly reasonable 5' 11", B stood at an unfairly tall 6' 9". He tried to hide a wince of pain as a sudden sting shot through his leg, but the android caught it.
"Are you alright?" It asked, concerned. Remus shook it off.
"Oh, I'm just peachy." He said, before looking up to meet B's eyes with a grin. "I never got to thank you for saving my life, B. So, thanks a lot, you bucket of bolts."
B-24 grinned back. "You're welcome, Perfect Soldier."
Remus should've known that the third time would've gone too far.
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me three times... and you're a goner.
B saved an entire squad of soldiers from heavy artillery, overriding both the operator's control and the commander's orders. Again. His backplate was dented and misshapen, and the damage he suffered, while fixable, just didn't seem worth it. He was shipped off to the tech lab for maintenance, as he usually did, but he didn't come back. Remus waited for hours, before it turned into days, and then weeks...
Bastion-39C took his place, and pale white eyes bore into him once more.