The Time from Before

Packing Up

With a careful hand, Allen slid one of the drained batteries into the slot at the back of the ACU. He expected nothing to happen, but to his surprise, he heard a faint whirring sound coming from the fans inside the machine. It was a sign that the ACU was starting to boot up.

"Huh. That's weird. I thought these batteries were dead." Allen muttered to himself.

"Maybe they had some juice left in them. Remember when you found your PDA? It was still working, right?" Mel chimed in, peering over his shoulder to see the ACU as it ran some diagnostics. The machine tested its joints, each one making a clicking sound as it locked into place.

And by 'shoulder,' no, she didn't grow taller. She climbed onto his bag, and has been sitting on it for a few minutes now.

The ACU's lights flickered on, casting a blue glow in the dark room.

"ACU detected. Connecting."

...

"Connection stable. Uploading relevant data..."

It didn't take long for the ACU to finish booting up. It lifted its metal foot and took a step forward, making a loud clanking noise that reverberated in the room. Then it took another step, and the noise became softer.

The ACU was adjusting itself, tightening its joints, balancing its hydraulics, and tuning its motors.

Allen reached into his pocket and pulled out his PDA. He tapped on the screen, which showed him the logs from the ACU.

* Systems check...

* Hardware failure detected. Software corruption detected.

* Attempting to resolve.

* Software corruption corrected. Hardware under calibration.

* Sensor array online. Sweeping now.

* Dominion operative found.

* PDA found.

* Attempting to activate voice module.

Allen looked up from the PDA, watching as the ACU finished calibrating its hardware. It then stood upright and looked at him.

"S-Systems o-nlin-ne. Please stan-ndby." It said in a distorted voice, full of static.

"Mm... No. Nu-uh." Callie spun around and walked out of the room, shaking her head. She wanted nothing to do with that thing.

"Can't say I blame you." Allen chuckled to himself, then turned his attention to the ACU.

"All systems stabilized." The ACU said in a clear voice. "Connection to the Arctos Network not established. Offline mode active. Engaging all non-essential processes now."

"When was the last time you connected to the Arctos Net?" Allen asked.

The ACU hesitated for a moment, as if searching for an answer.

"Unable to discern current time. Estimates are within four to six thousand years." It looked around, scanning the other lifeless husks of the other ACUs that were scattered around the room. "Repairs queued. Maintenance crews notified."

"Forget it. The Dominion is gone. There are only three confirmed combatants remaining. No one else." He looked back down at the PDA. "Follow me. We need to get the rest of these things up and running."

He turned to Mel; her resting on his shoulder.

"And she's with us. Mark her as an ally." Allen said.

"Understood. Contact Two parameters updated. Contact Three?" It said, starting to walk out of the room.