Novels2Search
Ballad of Machine: A Cold Start
Chapter 4: Industrial Powerhouses

Chapter 4: Industrial Powerhouses

600 brought the small orb into the repair shop, he looked around for the creator, but he was nowhere to be seen. He began to look around for 400, and soon found her outside of the room getting refueled. She was disabled due to her battery being charged, but 600 was impatient and concerned. He nudged her roughly with his side, pressing her elbow into her hip. She jumped awake, and the automated fuel pump came in contact with the sloshing fuel inside the tank, it lifted up and got tucked away. She lifted her arm and closed the fuel cap. "What do you need 600? I'm busy!" she exclaimed, rather aggravated. 600 began to explain what happened with the crash, and that he found a small orb. He wanted to repair 500's engine, which he thought this core was, to be able to help 500. 400 hopped off the repair base and began to walk towards the back room to check on the core.

She began to look it over before running back to 600, who just entered the doorway before she had turned. "I will get our creator, keep him safe please!" 400 squeezed past 600 and began to run towards the door, before swinging it open and running outside, forgetting to close the door. 200 had noticed, and headed over to fix it. 600 turned his head back to the repair shop, and walked towards the small orb. His visor opened and he began to snap pictures and scan the orb, as he began to organize information in his mind to gather what he could about this small piece of tech. He decided to also look back at the incident with the crash to see if he could find anything useful. As he did, he saw what he did to grab 500, he continued to replay it, even artificially enhancing the light within the memory to be able to see easier. He then shut his visor and looked at his arm, twisting it some as he tried to figure out what he did.

He then looked back to the core, and shook his head. He began to pace, trying to think of what to do. Before he knew it, their creator ran in with a panicked expression. He swept up the core and began to turn it. "600, what did you do?!" He exclaimed, before running over to a shelf and grabbing tools. He began to pry a piece off, allowing him to access welds and break them to allow him to get into the core. 600 was confused, and looked to 400 for reassurance. All she did though, was look at him with an upset expression on her digital screen and then look away, towards the creator. He felt his pistons sink deep into their housings as he saw this negation from 400, he felt horrible. His engine revved furiously as he punched his hands together, sparks showering onto the ground in a beautiful array. "What do you mean what did I do?" he barked out.

The creator turned and pointed at 600 with a wrench. His breath was quick, but it soon calmed. The core began to spin, before the little red light inside of it began to glow. Its speech was static, the creator looked towards it surprised and began to slowly fix the small orbs speech box. After doing so, it groaned and spun. "Where's my protective casing?!" it yelled out, it seemed to be looking at the creator, who was stunned. "Don't just stand there! Put it back on!" The creator put the core down and grabbed the 'protective casing.' The orbs red light appeared to move over and look at 600 and 400. "Hey, chip..." it groaned as it tried to speak, sparks shot out of the side of it. The creator consoled it. "You are too weak to speak, please just let me fix you for once you inconsistent bitch of a machine."

400 looked to 600. "You nearly killed 500." she whispered, 600 looked to him. "Why, cause he's laying in parts outside?" 400 was confused, she couldn't understand what he meant, so her face became three dots, that slowly hop in sequence like a loading bar. She then realized and came to her senses. "No, hes right there." She pointed to the orb with the dimmed light looking at the ground as their creator continued to carry out the repairs. "That... that is 500?" asked 600, he was surprised even more so. He had expected someone bulky, and human-like similar to the rest of the siblings. She nodded, "he was supposed to be an industrial type, like you are. However our creator didn't have the parts or the means to make one of us so strong yet. Because of that, 500 was made as an orb that can infect vehicles and equipment and control it from its own system." 600 seemed unimpressed. "So he effectively just drives things like a human would?" 400 nodded, still looking at the repairs.

It was a few hours till 500 would have been fully repaired. During such, 600 was helping 400 and 300 with loading an old truck with broken stone from a landslide up the way due to the storm rain. 300 was something 600 would have expected, in fact he looked very similar to 400 except slightly smaller. Unlike 400, he had attachment points in his hands that allowed him to connect to equipment which helped them in this situation. His hands each had a type of bucket with blade-like sharpened teeth on the bottom. He scooped up loose dirt and walked over to a large rock 600 moved over so they could step on it and dump the material into the truck. 600 on the other hand was grabbing large stones and debris and slowly bringing it back to the truck. While 400 using harsh vibrations from her engine all concentrated into her arms to slowly break up materials and separate the smaller materials for easier digging.

600 couldn't help but be curious about the situation going on with 500, as well as what the creator might be doing to him. Or even what the creator might do to 600, since he seemed quite angry. As 600 raised a large rock that 400 broke in half, he looked over to her while backing away from the rubble. "Do you think that he will be alright?" he asked to her, seeming to give a sense of genuine concern. "I believe he will be, I mean, I cannot say for sure." she commented, before going back to breaking up rocks. 600 lifted the giant boulder into the truck, and as it hit the bed it made the suspension bounce as the thuds sounded. He turned back to 300 hopping up onto the rock to dump soil into the bed. "I am sure he will be alright. He was built to do heavy jobs, he has just been so underused that he might need a few new parts, that's all."

600 wasn't so convinced. "He doesn't seem very industrial. Even we would outcompete his potential doing this minor task." 300 shook his head as he went to scoop up what 400 had broken down. "You don't see the light of the situation, 600. He is what perfection looks like. We where made with the idea of multi use utility in mind. The fact that he can control an excavator and get the job done at the resources of the vehicle and not at the resources of himself, where as a human would have to actually leave for a break or to eat or drink. Its revolutionary, don't you think?" 600 thought for a minute, and figured it was quite revolutionary. Something that useful would make humans irrelevant in the work force... why would humans want to make themselves irrelevant? He didn't really understand, but in the sense of something more advanced he figured he could see the true potential.

300 looked back to 600 as he cleared away a small sliver, which would allow him and 400 with their smaller bodies to get to the other side of the rubble. "It may seem like he may be the best of the best, but he made you with one connection in mind." He said this while 400 was shaking a rock to pieces, of which 600 was holding and being able to take away afterwards. He made sure she couldn't hear him, since it could jeopardize him and his chances of staying out of scrap. 600 looked to him with intrigue but also confusion. "What do you mean, a connection?" He lifted half the rock, and began to back up to bring it to the truck. 300 shook his head, "I will tell later. Don't worry." 600 was left absolutely dying to know what this purpose or connection was that he had. He tried to replay the memory of him grabbing 500s tail, but even then he couldn't understand what he did that made that happen.

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He turned towards the rubble and thrusted his hand out, it looked like he was trying to high five the air. His hand clicked every time he did it, but nothing happened. Even whenever trying to do it faster and in succession, it didn't seem to actually do much. The twins looked back, confused. "What are you doing six?" asked 400, but 300 knew. He said nothing as he scooped up some more soil, scraping the buckets against the old pavement of the road. "Come on six!" he called out, "we are nearly done. We just need to clear the road enough that the wider vehicles can get through if needed. Just come over here and stop your playing." 600 felt annoyed, he wasn't playing, he was trying to figure out what he did. Even so, he continued onwards and decided to help finish up the work.

By the time the trio came back it was sundown, and 600 was tasked with bringing the truck back under the metal housing. He understood why, 300 couldn't drive too precisely, and trying to could lead to damage of the supports or the other truck which parked there. Even if it was full of rocks he had to park it for now so that it didn't get wet and rust, or that the clay didn't stick together. In the next morning, he would break up the rocks and lay them like gravel to be able to repair the broken roads that formed due to the storm. When he walked back inside, 100 was charging and listening to a radio. It was speaking of the USSR and American connections getting weaker. 600 didn't know much about the USSR or the USA, so he put it off as nothing. But 100 listened intently, so he figured it must be important. Yet, he was more concerned about 500. He walked towards the repair shop to check up on him.

He opened the door slowly to the creator typing on a computer, while 500 was hooked up to some wires observing the creator. "May I come in?" 600 asked, politely yet worried in tone. 500 was the first to speak, looking towards him before their creator could even react. "Yes chip! I need to speak with you." The man looked to 500 with concern, however he didn't really care all too much. After all, the machines took to themselves as siblings of one another, so trying to break their bond and separate them was a horrible idea. They had to learn from experience somehow anyway. 600 stepped close to 500, who turned slightly and looked up at him. It was weird for 600 to see his older brother, not much older than him at least, be this tiny orb that moved and spoke.

"Pretty good show out there chip. I was just telling Red here about your strength and will. Honestly if you hadn't done what you did I might have been struck and fallen into the sea! How foolish of me, I should be more capable as your older sibling shouldn't I?" He said this in a quite sincere tone, 600 was taken aback. "Who is Red?" he asked, the creator looked back with some side eye. "I am Red, its my actual name. 500 was the only one who cared to learn it however, the others hadn't been too curious it seems. I don't want to melt your brains trying to figure out someone's title, so I just let you call me what you call me." he paused impressively. "This, 'the creator' thing makes me sound like some kind of god. Frankly I don't like it much, but if its what you had learnt is my name, then so be it." He went back to typing.

"Aw come on Red, you ain't gonna tell him the exciting part?" He seemed ecstatic about something, 600 couldn't understand. What was 'the exciting part?' Red sighs and looks back at 500. "I don't believe what you said was true, 500. From what we did in the tests it should have surfaced then, which means that its flawed what you have seen. Or should I say, felt, as you can't see behind you with the B-17." 500 made an angered expression with his covering, similar to an eyelid or eyebrow to make expressions. "Well I'll be Red. You said you would be so excited if this newbie came out how you hoped. I may have been turned off but I can hear what you say in my hangar." 600 shook his head and waved his hands. "What's going on?" he asked curiously, Red sighed.

"You are an Industrial type of the Station Class. Because of that, you are in the same class as 500 here. However, you have a unique ability." He tapped on the emblem that spelled "elm" on 600's shoulder. "500's B-17 had that painted on the side as a homage, but we never had a station class built with the assistance of Elm." 600 was puzzled. "What does this weird company I ain't ever heard of have to do with anything?" He seemed to become frustrated, his engine idled at a higher RPM than normal, heating up his body. Red signaled him to calm down. "The most basic thing I can tell you is what I know. Elm has this... Capability, per say, to be able to give people abilities. You know, like a superhero?" 600 took a minute to process before figuring out what a superhero was through the internet connected to him internally.

"You see 600, Elm can give people gifts. Its like an ability, like those super heroes. These gifts allow for people to be able to be stronger, more powerful than ever. I had gotten the chance to be able to get a part from Elm that would allow you to have a gift. This is what we mean when we say you have potential, or whatever." He seemed to become more frustrated by this as he spoke. "You are supposed to have a gift. But we haven't been able to-" 600 cut him off by opening his visor and pointing at his camera like eye. "I can show you. I figured out something online, something known as a projector. I can show you my memories as if film on a reel." Red didn't seem much too inclined, but 500 decided it would be great fun. "Yeah chip! Show this man what you did! Show him how you saved me!" Red decided, all be it reluctantly, to see this memory. They went into a dark room with an old white board. Boxes and old totes is all that resided there now, it used to be a meeting room. But it hadn't been used in years.

600 stood behind Red, who was holding 500. 600's visor raised, as the rapid picture taking began again, before the flashes soon turned to pictures on the white board. His battery clicked like an old projector as he showed what he had seen. It showed everything at a decently high frame rate. His voice box played back the audio, and Red's jaw dropped. Not only did he see what 600 had done, he had seen 500's wreck. The memory ended with 600 slamming against the ground and blacking out, he looked down after the memory went out, and he turned on the lights. His visor shut, he was worried about what Red would say. Red slowly looked at 600, while he turned though 500 was also looking with a cheeky expression. Red's jaw hung open like a broken door. "That... there is no way..."

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