Reaper: The Novel

The Truth of The Salvage

The cassette tape whirred for a second. That second became two minutes. All the while the atmosphere became more and more unsettling.

Eventually, after what seemed to be 2 minutes, a small tune started to play. The tune was calming. It consisted of birds singing and grass swaying. It reminded the girl of the times when S.A.M would play her a tune when she couldn't sleep. It assured her that the nightmares she felt was only an illusion.

But this time, it was different. This time, the nightmare was very real. And it was sitting right in front of her.

The tune ended. The tape resumed.

"If you are listening to this, then congrats. You aren't dead (yet), so we'll go over this a few more times. Pull up the paper and check the appropriate tickbox. You already now what to do if anything else happens, so as always, finish this Salvage and we can all go home earl-"

Before the girl could react, a blinding light suddenly burst out of the tape. The girl flinched, but she did not put down the paper. With unyielding resolve, she checked where she remembered there was a tickbox.

The light started to fade, but with it, the rest of the light in the room. Remembering what happened last time, she grabbed the T.A.S.E.R and tried to shock the bulb.

But there was no need to.

For a familiar metallic hand had already replaced the bulb. It shone brighter than every other light in the base.

With proper lighting, she could finally see the eldritch entity in front of her. It was a heavily damaged robot, not taller than her. Its head was rusting, and so was everything else. A chunk of its head was gone, partially revealing an endoskull. Wires poked out of its body, and it looked awfully familiar.

It looked like S.A.M

Panicking, the girl tried to stand up, but found out that she could not. It was as if she was pinned to the chair. Squirming, she waited for the worst.

But nothing happened.

The robot looked at her like she was mad. Then he let out a chuckle. This surprised her. She expected that his voice would be incredibly mechanical and reverbing, but it sounded like a normal human. With an accent to boot.

"I believe that I haven't introduced myself yet." The robot pulled out mirror out of nowhere, and exclaimed: "My, my! I'm terribly sorry! I suppose that spending time out in space doesn't do good for the body."

Now it was the girl's turn to look at him incredulously. His looks certainly betrayed his voice. Now with more light to inspect him, she saw that unlike S.A.M, this robot had an extra arm poking out of his side. Now that she saw it, she saw many more parts that clearly didn't belong to this... being? A pair of plastic eyeballs were affixed to his arm, and a few wires that looked like steel cables ran out of his mouth. But the most concerning part was his mouth. It looked like it was a set of teeth behind his actual set of teeth. They looked different, as the robot's teeth looked rusted, the ones behind them looked shiny and white. But they were sharp, and the heavily damaged robot's teeth were not. If anything, they were safer than any other teeth.

"So...umm.. do I still salvage you?", the girl meekly asked. The robot paused, made a sound similar to heavy breathing, and said: "Oh no no. There's no need. Your foundation has a policy where they only salvage robots with less intelligence than humans. If anything, I'm more intelligent."

Silence...

"So uh, I have so many questions right now...", the girl said, still weirded out. "There is no need for you to ask nor for me to answer. You will eventually find everything out in due time. What you should know however, is that yes, I am the reason why the neon sign in the corridor failed to shine. It was required, you see, because if you did not experience the harrowing cognitohazard, you would have died, like the others, upon seeing me on the spot."

"How did you access the sign controls though? I thought that you could only breach the lights if you had a password?", asked the girl.

"Oh, for that, I employed the help of a person inside her. You might know her as Igneus. I swear, she always helps as long as you give him brownies. The unfortunate immortal fellow."

The robot glanced at a clock on the wall that the girl had never seen before. "Oh, it seems that time has run out. Sorry, I have an appointment with ●■>[]○■. It is fine if you do not comprehend what I have just said. The human mind's defense against things beyond their comprehension, is ignorance, after all."

The robot stood up, his gears and parts klunking and clinking. "One more thing. You should check on S.A.M. It appears that he has reverted to protocol 11."

Before the girl could say anything else, the robot started to fade. It wasn't opening a portal. It was just fading into nothingness.

And it was causing everything else to fade as well. The girl fell asleep.

When the girl woke up, she was in a white room, on a white bed. Lily was next to her, reading a book. She was in the medbay.

"Oh! You're finally awake!"

....

"How long was I out?", the girl asked. "About 2 minutes. We found you asleep in the Salvaging room. Good thing you weren't actually salvaging anything. You could've died, you know! Well, it's alright, because everything is done now. Interesting fact though... When we carried you back here, you mumbled something. Something about "Protocol 11" or something."

And that's how the girl remembered everything.

Before the girl could explain, the T.V that hung on the wall turned on, and it was a Renegade Emergency.

"Citizens of Beach Zone #37 are reporting a S.A.M unit that has been destroying everything in its path. It is unknown why, but the Renegades are saying that they'll send a Strike Force to deal with it."

Suddenly, Dr. Xhargreg burst through the door, almost knocking over a potted plant. Out of breath, all he could mutter was:

"S.A.M has activated protocol 11. Reaper, you have to come with me. Now."

(Hey internet! AT76 here. I don't have much to say. Please do vote, leave a comment, and follow if you wanna read more. Peace)