The large automaton was still, seemingly running through the subroutines required for its startup. The lights scattered about its body blinked white frenetically, internal hardware whirring and clicking as it loaded its low-level software
Suddenly, the light and noise stopped. Its servos and motors released their safety locks, causing it to slump over slightly with a deep thud.
And then… its eye lit up, the machine releasing a drawn-out, electronic jingle to signify its activation.
It straightened out its back, and attempted to lift itself off of the ground, looking at the group of people around it
“...a...istr...or… as...w...rd…”, it said, in a broken electronic voice, void of any emotion or personality.
“Administrator password?” it repeated, not looking at any person in particular.
“Why the hell would you need a password? You’re an android, you can think and recognize people… A3?” Caesar asks, confused and frustrated by the queries of this machine. “You should be able to recognize a face… What the hell happened to you?”
It looked at Caesar, its hardware creating deep and resonating clicks as it thought, “My Unit does not possess any form of recoverable hard disk data. My Unit may have incurred system-level damage from unknown sources, that which is beyond my Unit’s fragments.” It looked at itself, seemingly remembering something. “...my Unit does recognize the identifier as A3. ...affirmative, my Unit had been previously defined as A3, a deconstruction of A3-80N.” Its single gaze shifted towards its right arm, at which several canisters were attached. “My Unit’s inventory has not had been subtracted from, this afflicts an artificial emotion that individuals may define as pleased.”
Caesar looked at the machine in front of him, and back towards OSC-01 for a moment, before examining the tendrils below, replacing the standard bipedal design of legs. “A3, can you explain the movement fixtures below your unit? Can you remember if your standard model architecture was modified in any way?”
A3 looked down at the sprawl of segmented metal tubes, before proceeding to look up into nothingness, “As my Unit had previously delivered informational data on, data which existed from before this temporal period has been defined as unrecoverable, and as such, has not been recovered. For your own convenience, my Unit’s operating system has defined the software of which is a requirement for the functionality of my Unit’s lower movement hardware as belonging to a third party, and as any individual of a numerical intelligence value beyond a single digit may determine, should be defined as a modification to my Unit’s original hardware.” The large robot looked back down at Caesar, tilting its head to one side as to suggest sass. “My Unit feels that it would be appropriate to deliver grief for my Unit’s verbal transgressions if they have afflicted any form of emotional or mental harm, but has defined such an action as being unnecessary.”
Dahlia took a few steps away from the robot, following the conversation loosely. It seemed Caesar had a little more under his belt than he had initially given. At some point she needed to pin him and Marie down and figure out more about this technology. OSC-01 on the other hand wasn’t nearly as interested. They glared back at Caesar briefly, before the pulsing eye on the side of the book rolled up to peer at Dahlia. This robot seemed intelligent, but it was hard to tell if it was more or less tact. ”I don’t sound like that to you, do I?”
Caesar paused for a moment, overwhelmed with what possibly they built into the robot, before snapping to a realization… “Is- is that sass?” In the background, OSC-01 chortled just within earshot. Caesar hopped back up to the table ahead of him, and looked straight into the ‘eye’ of A3. “They programmed you with a personality module, too… Alright A3. Can you do three things for me? I request the manufacturer name for the drivers for the aforementioned third-party parts, An explanation of your designated directives, and a non-hazardous test of Fusion Functions.”
A3 once again began to stare at nothing in particular, hardware whirring as it attempted to parse its data. ”Case 0: Your query has resulted in a negative outcome. No manufacturing party has been defined via the third-party drivers. This delivers the product that the instances of third-party drivers may have been developed by an individual defined as independent.
Case 1: Directives defined as assigned to my Unit are… undefined.
Case 2: my Unit cannot provide an accurate answer as to whether my Unit can perform a test that would produce a… non-hazardous outcome.” Steam gently spewed from its seams, as if it sighed.
“Can you identify the key type inside your chassis? That’d probably be a test to see if your capabilities function. Give me Batch name and manufacturer name for the key.” Caesar equips the blue key into the Veteran, to get ready to react if the unit’s functions error upon testing the equipment. “Afterwards, I would like to give you new directives if you are able to respond to them.”
“Affirmative.” A3 freezes up, the eye and lights changing to a silver white as the robot makes a shrill ping. “My Unit’s driver defines this key’s Batch as Steel, manufacturer name is defined as Romulus Aurum.” It, once again, looks down at the man. “My Unit expresses desire to query your directive requests.”
“We are here on a retrieval mission for a child android underneath parent unit OSC-O1, It’s designated name is BTC-O3, and somewhere in this region is it’s resting place.” Caesar beckons the robot to the group, over by the truck. “These are my compatriots, and their leader is the blue-haired one, designated name Dahlia Morgan. There are th-” He briefly interrupts himself to look at Juryrig before turning back to A3. “Four. Four fusion users in the group, including myself. Unit Beta is within proximity, name Reman Argint. Units Tau and Psi are named Juryrig and Marie, and my designated callsign… is not to be spoken aloud.” Caesar steps up to the alchemical horse, and whispers it into what he can assume is the ear of the unit. “Alpha. Real name Romulus Aurum.”
It listens closely, pondering… or maybe, recording what was said, it’s hard to tell from a mostly-featureless face like that. “...my Unit wishes to express understanding. My Unit accepts your requested directives...” said in a quiet, muted voice. “...including requested directives produced from beyond the current timeframe.”
Romulus steps down from the horse, and starts walking towards the truck. He was fairly confident that at this point, just in case, he had a new ally in the reparation of his deeds. His radial aura of smug returns, as he asks one last question. “Was the truck your doing?”
A3 stares at the remains, studying them, before shaking its olive-shaped head. “Negative response. The transportation vehicle only possesses damage that my Unit defines as environmental, there is high possibility that this vehicle had gained the status of forgotten via its original user, this status extends additively to my Unit and inventory possessed by the vehicle.”
“Double time, then. Let’s go find O3.”