Work Text:
~ August 10th, 2077 ~
Under the watchful gaze of several high-ranking military officers and the Chief of Engineering, Gary Campbell assembled the first of a brand new robobrain subtype. Its overall design resembled standard robobrains; the treads, torso, arms and dome were similar enough to what he worked with every day, but this chassis was a whole lot sturdier and had a few noticeable add-ons.
He finished fiddling with the retractable armaments and focused on the next bit. Oh sure, this design was elegant and technically sound, he wasn't going to argue with that, but installing that extra slipring was proving to be a real hassle. Not impossible though. He was a professional. This subtype had a rotating section at the top of its torso, to which multiple extra arms were connected. The extra arms didn't have the usual claw-hand appendages, but instead they had saw blades, knives, a rivet gun, lasers? What on earth were they having this thing do? Trying to put him out of a job, by the looks of it. Higher ups thought they were so clever; yeah sure, let the robots build the robots, what could go wrong. No one had learned anything from that mass product recall at the automated EyeBot factory. Cutting out the human element was just asking for trouble!
And now for the final touches. General Rawlings, Lieutenant Green, Lieutenant General Fox and Chief Engineer Harkin all leaned a bit closer as he connected the dome. Maybe they were going to give a little speech to mark the occasion, but the robobrain had other plans. Not even seconds after he was done connecting its dome, RB-CA001, first of its batch, sped off into the distance! Fuck.
Honestly, he had expected more angry shouting. Lieutenant General Fox looked remarkably calm, considering it was her pet project that just ran off. It wouldn't be able to get very far in this highly secure facility though, and she was no doubt aware of that.
Campbell didn't know much about this Lieutenant General, except that she'd convinced General Rawlings to lend her the factory for three whole days for this batch of specialised robobrains. Lieutenant Green was probably not happy with what her little incursion was doing to his own efficiency ratings, but he hid it well.
Oh, and word on the grapevine was Fox had Walsh from Extraction deeply rattled, for some reason. How was that possible? Did Walsh even have anything to rattle? That guy was the byword for unflappable!
"Harkin, what is your assessment of what just happened?"
"All previous test results show it is fully compliant, properly CODE conditioned…," Harkin mused, "just some navigational issues, then."
"Campbell, go find it, send it to Research."
Yeah, none of them were going to chase after it, of course.
It was a full twenty minutes later, when he found the errant robobrain in Sanitation, of all places. It was repeatedly ramming against the incinerator. Despite the intense heat there was no real harm done, this subtype was built to shrug off just about anything. O'Neil boasted they could withstand mini nukes, building collapses, you name it. He should know, he tested the materials. Kind of a waste of resources for a non-combatant model, but it probably made sense to that lieutenant general, whatever her agenda was. There were too many agendas in this place.
Right now, no one cared about his agenda, which was not missing his entire fucking lunch break.
"RB-CA001 what are you doing in Sanitation? You are supposed to head to Research. Re-search."
"Is this not where dead biological material goes?"
Why did this have to happen on a Tuesday, when they had the good sandwiches at the cafeteria? They probably ran out already and he'd have to settle for fried cram again. "What the fuck are you babbling about?"
"It is quite simple, really. I shall clarify. After processing, biological materials of used subjects are brought to the incinerator. I still contain biological material of a subject. Does it not follow that it should also be properly disposed of?"
It wasn't fair they were making him deal with this bullshit. Sure, he was part of a groundbreaking operation, but, well, Assaultrons never gave him this much lip! Assaultrons were much better to look at, too. Maybe he should just go back to his old job. The cafeteria was so much better.
Instead, this robobrain was ruining his day. He thwacked its chassis with his spanner. "Oh for–we are not going to dispose of your central processor, you dumb piece of machinery! You need it to do your job. And you're going to do your damn job just like everyone else here. Now. Head. To. Research!"
It stared at him, its treads whirring in place.
It looked what? Despondent? Nah, that was ridiculous. He watched it zoom off, in the right direction this time.