Jason lead Rec through a confusing maze of backstreets and alleyways, glancing nervously at Happy from time to time. Eventually, they arrived at a small shack next to a few abandoned warehouses. Jason knocked on the door, cocking his head as he listened for sounds of movement within. A stout man with grey hair, a short grey moustache and large spectacles opened the door a crack and peered at them.
“Dear god old boy! Behind you!” The man drew a small handgun, the same kind as Rec’s, and aimed it at Hppy.
“It’s okay Ed, it’s a T3X.”
“T3X...” ‘Ed’ gapsed. “Reprogrammed?”
“Would I be standing here if it wasn’t?”
“Good point, come in.” Ed opened the door fully and motioned for them to come inside. To Rec’s surprise, the floor sloped on a thirty degree angle. She and Jason followed Ed down into a tunnel that connected to a system of other tunnels and bunkers, a whole underground city. They passed through a large hall bustling with activity and ringing with the clangs of plates and cutlery; the mess hall. Happy attracted many curious, aggressive and frightful stares, which he either didn’t notice or chose to ignore. Once out, Ed began talking. “As you can see, things are getting worse. Food’s running out, and less scouting parties are coming back alive. We’re housing lots of civilians, but most of them can use a gun. We have a limited supply of vehicles and ammo, so we’ll need to cause bit of chaos before we launch our main assault. We need the best we have, so strictly military personnel. That means you Jason.” Jason nodded for him to continue. “You and your team will be attacking a railway that INFER uses to transport their robots around the country.”
“Okay,” Jason agreed. “When do I meet them?”
“Right now,” Ed answered, opening a door for them and revealing five other marines inside. “Sorry Jay, no rest for the wicked.” Jason grinned and patted the old man on the shoulder.
“No problem Ed, see ya round.” Ed smiled and walked back to his post, leaving Jason to meet his new team. The five humans raised their guns at Happy menacingly.
“What’s that doing here?” one of them spat.
“Relax,” Jason commanded. “It’s a T3X.” They nodded and introduced themselves. The first one, Marty, stepped forward. He was tall and slender with a black fringe and piercing blue eyes. He was holding an EMPG (Electro-Magnetic Pulse Grenade) Launcher and had a belt full of EMPG capsules strapped across his chest like you see people do with ammo clips in movies. The second was a young woman named Scarlet who had a brown pony tail and sparkling greyish-green eyes. She was, like Marty and everyone else still alive, incredibly skinny from the lack of food and the excessive exercise. She slung a standard APRF-AR (Armour Piercing Round Firing Assault Rifle) over her shoulder. Third was Luke, a broad, gruff man who had short black hair that spiked up at the front. His eyes were covered by a pair of aviator goggles, even though he had never set foot in a plane before. He had an APRF Shotgun complete with a bayonet strapped to his back. Fourth was Sarah. She was short, slightly chubby, and looked way too young to be serving in the resistance. She had long blonde hair that fell past her shoulders and hazel eyes that were always studying something. She carried four APRF Handguns, two strapped at her hips and two strapped upside-down on her chest. Last was Kat. She had black hair that was barely two centimetres long and icy grey eyes. Her face was scarred on her left cheek and she looked incredibly muscly. She held in her hands something that looked suspiciously like a mini-gun that had been ripped off a T4X and modified to be fired manually via a trigger. This was in fact exactly what it was. It even had a small bipod that swung loosely on the brace that ran along the bottom of the barrel. A long strip of bullets ran from the gun’s ammo input chamber to a small bag hooked into her belt, which was presumably filled with the rest of the strip of bullets. All of the soldiers, including Jason, wore the standard grey suits of the resistance with slightly darker, thicker patches that served as padding in places such as the elbows, knees, shins etc. What wasn’t standard was the fact that they wore heavy black bullet-proof vests and belts full of EMPGs and spare magazines. Rec whistled lowly, these guys were not fooling around. Kat shot her a look.
“What is the little girl doing here?” she demanded. Rec bristled.
“Little girl?” she growled.
“Rec is Administrator. All INFER devices must be terminated,” Happy told her monotonously. Kat raised an eyebrow at Rec.
“You reprogrammed it? Hm...”
“I am Happy, although I do not possess a gender, I have been given the honorary title of male. Please do not refer to me as an ‘it’.” There was an edge to Happy’s voice Rec couldn’t quite place. Anger? No, that can’t be it... Rec gave him a pat on the shoulder, the metal clanging softly as she did so.
“You heard the man, let’s not forget our manners,” she smirked, glad that Happy had called Kat out like that. Kat grimaced and started checking her gun. Rec turned to Jason, who was peering at Happy suspiciously. Rec cleared her throat, gaining his attention. “So, do I get one of the fancy suits?” she inquired, Jason looked at her sypathetically.
“No. You will be staying here with the rest of the civilians. This mission is for strictly military personnel. Sorry, Rec, but you’re gonna have to stay put.” Luke growled, then glanced down. “As a matter of fact, I’ll take that handgun back.” Rec jerked it away from his reach.
“You can’t make me!” she resisted. “I’m going if I want to!” Luke grabbed her wrist.
“Hand it over sweetheart,” he growled. He noticed a complete and sudden silence in the room. He felt a prick of something incredibly sharp pressed against the back of his neck, just hard enough to break a tiny section of skin and make a small trickle of blood slide down his back.
“Release her,” Happy ordered. Luke gulped and obediently let go of Rec, then backed away to the other side of the room. Happy let his wrist blade slide back into its sheath. “Rec wishes to accompany you on your mission, and I do not believe she will take no for an answer. She will leave by herself if she doesn’t come with you, which will put her in more danger.”
“Robot’s got a point,” Jason agreed.
“Yeah? And how do we know it’s not just spying on us? Telling INFER all about our little plans?” Luke demanded, rubbing his neck where he’d been bleeding.
“If that was true, we would all be dead already. There is no advantage to following us on this mission or pretending he’s on our side. There would be no side to pretend to be on if he reported us,” Jason pointed out. It made sense, so he got a few reluctant nods.
“I believe Ed said we were to leave immediately, we have wasted enough time already,” Happy informed them. Jason picked up his APRF-AR and grinned.
“I like your attitude,” he chuckeld.
YOU ARE READING
Robot's Redemption
Ciencia FicciónThe year is 2039. INFER Industries created a new line of robots that went terribly wrong. Able to learn and think, these robots realized they were being repressed and mistreated by their human creators and initiated an uprising. The humans didn't st...
