The room was found to be empty, the relative smallness allowing the woman to scour every corner for a hiding thief within a second. It caused a sigh of relief, mixed with the sound of automation closing the door behind them.
“I can’t access the database so you have to say where this stuff is, you know,” Jules reminded Cassandra, sounding like it was doing a lot of work in the acting department. The woman didn't truly believe that cheerfulness anymore, yet she still obliged in kind with a smile. Rebooting her own memory, the woman’s feet moved of their own accord.
“It's right here,” Cassandra walking over to the right corner of the room. Stacked on some shelves were the gear-piece that the woman was so obsessed with. It was sort of like a vest but so much more than that. Taking one of the many available, she threw it at a startled automation. "Get that on before they move towards us."
It was the technology she had thought about for so long earlier in the day. Its main use was to spray away dangerous debris in locations where hazardous pieces of solid material would float around in the air. It was scarily effective at moving small objects away from one’s body with no hesitation, able to even put a bullet off-target in some better situations. The woman didn't truly trust the gear to that level, only knowing that it would serve well enough with the lighter plastic pebbles that she was actually worried about.
It was a hard fight to get on the vest, the woman having to strip off a lot of emergency ammunition. Not like she expected to use the batteries or extra doses of sedatives, but it was nice to have. Yet… it was not important enough to have instead of a solid defence against a kind of weapon that would stop them in their steps normally. It wasn't a high price at all.
By the time the woman had gotten on the new gear piece, the automation had done the same. Moving back to not talking, the two nodded, getting back into the hallway outside. This time, they didn't kick in the door, gently opening it without making a sound. A quick glance both ways made it clear nobody was waiting for them, and off they were, moving as quickly as their feet would allow.
Hallway after hallway was moved down, the lighting never changing, and the sounds of echoing footsteps never stopping. The old quality of the building had deteriorated the sound isolation, making it hard to truly distinguish whose feet were making what sounds.
Or… well, it was hard in fewer numbers. When those number of feet suddenly increased? Then the woman would notice, making herself and the automation try and figure out where the sounds were coming from. The echoing quality was making it hard to locate where the source was. Two hallways were prime suspects, both away from where the two officers were going towards. If anything, the thieves might just have been there.
And if they had been there, they had likely already done what they intended to do, whether that was unrelated to Jared’s health or not. Being unable to check up on the man’s health remotely, the woman could only assume the worst.
Giving a nod of her head towards the original destination, Cassandra moved towards the medical centre of the station. She would make sure of the man’s health before a chanceful capture. A life would not be captured at the expense of one of her own being lost. Health was a higher priority than anything.
The woman kept glancing to the sides, the footsteps continuing to be heard. The two officers were careful in their own steps, making sure they wouldn't be heard themselves. It cut down on speed dramatically but neither would they disclose their location. The thieves seemed to have no such concerns, shouts and steps in the distance being loud. They were too fragmented to hear, but the voices could be recognized. If Cassandra hadn't already started to record it all, she would have done so at that moment. Things were moving into place., and the woman’s fists tightened around her tranquiliser.
She was more than ready to fire at any thief that had stayed behind inside the medical wing. But… no such thief could be found. Jared was found sleeping in his bed, Nero watching over the man with a determined gaze. A gaze that did waver away from the man when they entered the room.
A gaze that didn't change when Cassandra walked over to the automation. A change that didn't change when the woman touched the construct.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“Nero. Move yourself,” the woman commanded to the construct, yet no answer met her words. Even when she forced herself in between the automation and Jared, there was not a muscle moved in the construct. What was happening? “Is it frozen?”
“No, that shouldn't be possible,” Jules said, studying the situation from the side. When Cassandra moved back to allow it space, the construct moved forward to examine it more closely. “We can’t be activated and deactivated at the same time. If Nero was deactivated, it would be limb and without movement, yet it holds a position that’s stressful on the back. It's… I think it can hear us.”
“What?” Cassandra said. “Then why isn't it answering us?”
“That’s what I would like to ask,” Jules said, putting its hand to Nero’s throat. There was a brief moment where both automations' eyes glowed, yet the result was nothing but the former construct shaking its head. “It doesn't make sense for what we have already set up. The hardware shouldn't allow for something like this. It’s almost like the very rules have been ignored in favour of completing an order. Like...the sensory organs are active. For all intents and purposes, Nero can hear us right now. It just can't… do anything that comes close to reacting to it. The inside processes are allowed to run, yet anything to do with the outside isn't allowed no matter what.”
The automation slapped the others as an example. The construct previously sitting on a chair fell to the floor without a single attempt to save itself. Cassandra just stood by, flabbergasted at what she was seeing.
“Right there,” Jules stated, pointing at the automation on the ground. “No matter what state of mind an automation is in, hands will always be drawn to stop the fall. It’s hard-coded to preserve us, yet Nero is ignoring those commands… this shouldn't be possible.”
Jules took more than a few steps away from the automation on the ground, clearly having some trouble accepting the reality in front of it. Or maybe its internal systems weren't allowing it to understand it all, the very basics currently being broken down into pieces. A rule of the world had been broken, and the consequences were breaking it mentally.
Cassandra personally just took her time righting Nero back up on the chair, allowing it to look at Jared once again. If the thing was able to still see and hear, it would be a nice gesture to at least let it look at something slightly interesting. The restraints put on it physically was haunting, yet the woman could only have one other thought in her head.
“This is something that should be impossible normally,” Cassandra stated, looking over at the pacing automation on the other side of the room. Jules had walked over to one of the corners and right back, looking more agitated than ever before. It did not look calm at all.
“It should be more than impossible. I would need to be in pieces to ever stop myself from doing… anything,” Jules replied, clearly at a loss for words, unable to think clearly enough to formulate itself. “There is no way for us to do things like this yet it very clearly has happened.”
“You're meant to have full control of your body for as long as you're active,” Cassandra continued, looking increasingly negative. Her eyes were narrowing, not at the automation itself but at the world that surrounded it.
“We can technically be controlled remotely while we are inactive, but not to that degree,” Jules stated, pointing briefly at the other automation before looking away. “No, we won't be able to be forced to do much while active. A few commands about not betraying the country, sure, but not to the point where we become statues. If anything, we would move more than anything, shooting any infidels as they came…”
It was distracting itself from the reality it was standing in. Cassandra could empathise with that to some level. Yet, it was not the time for such things. She needed to delve deeper.
“We’ve seen this before,” Cassandra said, which catched the attention of the automation instantly. “You were forced to almost rip off your face a few days back. You normally shouldn't have been made to do something like that, yet-”
“The thieves are capable of something like that,” the automation finished, its facial features hardening from the thousands of thoughts having a larger priority over anything else said. “They’ve shown it before and they’ve shown it again. Those gloves of theirs… it’s the method chosen.”
Well, at least they got that cleared up. Looking over at the automation that was frozen again, Cassandra wondered what would happen in the future. Would the effect disappear after some time? Jules was freed from the effects when the automation was stopped from moving, yet those principles were quite impossible in the current scenario. Being moved around clearly didn't do anything, and the other construct had been unable to establish any kind of connection.
Wait… how much access did the thieves have? How much of the digital space could they access? What fronts were the criminals privy to? Cassandra asked herself as such at that very instant, the access to the automations walls being more than enough to make the woman fear.
They had caused a digital blackout, making everybody unable to access the information about anything happening inside the station. Yet… was that also including the thieves themselves? Would the criminals have access to, say, the security cameras?
Looking up at the thing in the corner of the room, Cassandra found the lens rotating over to her. With a swift unlock of her holster, she raised her own revolver and shot the thing. The camera might have had protection, yet the higher power was unable to be stopped. The thing fell before it had a chance to save anything.
“We need one of them alive, at a minimum,” Cassandra surmised, putting away her revolver. looking over at Jules again. The automation matched her expression. “And we need to do it now.”
“You didn’t even need to tell me,” the automation stated, opening up its revolver to change out the ammunition. It would work as something more than lethal now. The woman couldn't wait. “Let’s go out and catch some criminals.”
And out they went, flying past the door with a fell swoop. Cameras were disabled everywhere they went, slowly creating a scenario that was more than fair. The criminals had been able to see where they were without the opposite being true. Now… both parties would be in the dark. Now the hunt could commence.