Chapter 313: Collecting Some Units

Once the shard disappeared into the Containment Subspace, PCL-1 slowly changed with it.

Nothing dramatic happened.

The broken lights remained broken. The damaged panels didn’t suddenly come back to life, and the bodies scattered through the deeper sections of the facility stayed exactly where they were.

But the strange field that had covered the inner part of the laboratory began to disappear.

It weakened first around the chamber, then through the corridors leading back toward Operations. By the time Hans was halfway out, the facility simply felt like an abandoned laboratory again.

The area was cold, damaged, and eerily quiet. Nothing else.

The Engineers noticed the difference as well. They had already started moving closer toward sections they previously avoided, checking instruments and equipment that had been difficult to approach while the shard was still inside.

Hans left them to it.

The shard was what he came here for. That problem was done, or at least he thought it was.

...

When Hans returned, all six ASS-015 units were waiting near the entrance. That caught his attention.

They had spent almost a year guarding the inner containment area. Three of them had remained around the chamber even while Kordula’s team worked inside the facility.

Now all six had abandoned those positions.

They stood along the wider entrance corridor instead, damaged weapons lowered and sensor heads following Hans as he approached.

Callum and Specter Squad were already waiting farther ahead with the local DASF team.

Hans checked the System map. Their markers remained gray.

The first ASS-015 unit rolled forward. Its display lit up.

------

WE GREET THE CHOSEN ONE.

------

Hans’s mouth twitched.

The chosen one? What kind of nonsense is this?

Technically, the System had chosen him for something. That didn’t make hearing it from a half-broken security robot any less awkward.

And judging from the way all six machines were facing him, this wasn’t some corrupted greeting accidentally pulled from an old database.

"Stop with that. It’s... awkward. And I’m not the chosen one."

The display changed.

------

ONLY YOU COULD HAVE HANDLED THE SHARD.

IF NOT THE CHOSEN ONE, THEN WHAT ARE YOU?

------

"Just the man in charge." Hans sighed.

What interested him more was the fact that the machines were still behaving like this at all.

The shard was gone, along with the psychic field that surrounded PCL-1, yet whatever had happened to ASS-015 remained.

They still paused too long before certain responses. They still used language that didn’t resemble the security systems Kordula knew. Their damaged memories had not suddenly returned either.

Removing the shard only removed the pressure, but not what altered these machines.

Hans looked at the six units again.

"The shard’s gone, and you don’t have anything left to do down there. Are you going to return to your previous duty?"

The answer took several seconds.

------

PCL-1 HAS BEEN COMPROMISED.

ASSIGNED PERSONNEL: NONE.

CONTAINMENT OBJECTIVE: REMOVED.

PRIMARY SECURITY DIRECTIVE: COMPLETE.

SUPERVISORY AUTHORITY: UNAVAILABLE.

CURRENT DUTY...

ERROR.

NO VALID CONTINUATION.

AWAITING NEXT COMMAND.

------

Hans raised a brow. That explained why they had finally left the chamber. Their last meaningful assignment had been to keep everyone away from the shard, or perhaps they assigned themselves to it.

"Whatever that next command is, I can’t help you with that."

These units weren’t his to begin with.

PCL-1 wasn’t one of his System facilities, and the six gray markers on his map hadn’t changed just because the machines had started calling him something ridiculous.

Taking them out of here would be less like recovering his own equipment and more like walking into somebody else’s laboratory and leaving with their security robots.

Kordula would probably have something to say about that.

The first unit’s display lit up again.

------

DO NOT MISUNDERSTAND, CHOSEN ONE.

WE ARE AWAITING YOUR NEXT COMMAND.

------

Hans stopped and looked at the unit, then slowly turned to the other five.

All six sensor heads remained pointed toward him.

"..."

For once, Hans had nothing useful to say. He had come to PCL-1 expecting to recover one meteorite shard.

Instead, he seemed to have gained six damaged mechanical followers who independently decided that he was now responsible for telling them what to do.

Am I the Mechanical Messiah now?

The thought wasn’t that bad, but he was unsure how to even make use of them. Personnel Integration was meant for people, not machines, and Hans had no idea how to properly bring these robots into his force.

The System didn’t reply about it either, leaving him with limited choices.

"Perhaps I can let Kordula assess these machines and see if they can become another research lead."

The concept of robot warfare suddenly didn’t seem that far anymore.

"Very well." Hans looked up to them once more. "Since you consider me the chosen one, then I’ll shamelessly become your chosen one."

The six units remained still, waiting for the next command.

Hans cleared his throat, then spoke once more.

"Your next command is to follow me back. After that, I’ll think of what to do with the six of you."

------

COMMAND ACCEPTED.

------

All six units moved at once.

Hans watched them reorganize around him without another word.

Three rolled ahead toward the facility entrance while the others spread behind and to the sides. Their weapons remained lowered, but the formation looked close enough to an escort that Specter turned his head toward them when Hans finally came back into view.

Callum did the same.

Not one unit said anything.

Hans looked from his usual security detail to the six damaged machines surrounding him. He felt that it was really getting awkward now.

"They’re with me," he spoke. "The shard has been taken care of. Let’s get back to base."

They continued outside.

The Falcon was still sitting in the cleared yard where they left it.

Hans looked at the six ASS-015 units, then back at the Falcon.

"...Right."

He had forgotten one small problem. These things were not getting inside that helicopter.

Hans walked around the nearest unit once.

The machine was considerably smaller than an APC, but it was still a tracked security platform with a heavy upper body, weapon mount and manipulator arm. Six of them would need actual transport rather than passenger seats.

The Engineers came out behind them.

Hans pointed toward the machines.

"Get their dimensions and weight. I want to know what can carry all six without tearing them apart."

"Yes, Commander."

The Engineers moved over immediately.

Hans opened the wider Northern Command picture. There was no reason to force the problem today.

PCL-1 was secure. The shard was gone, the psychic field disappeared, and ASS-015 survived almost a year inside the facility already.

They could survive another day while proper transport came up the mountain.

For now, Hans had somewhere else to go.

He looked toward the six machines.

"Stay here until transport arrives. Follow my personnel and don’t shoot anyone unless they attack first."

A display lit up.

------

COMMAND ACCEPTED.

------

Hans breathed a sigh of relief after the security units followed his arrangement. Otherwise, he really would have been forced to walk down the mountain and start the first mechanical crusade back to Grefort.

He checked their markers once more and realized they had actually turned green.

With a final look, he turned toward the Falcon.

"Time to get back to base."