Charge cycle completed... Disabling power save mode... All systems check: Excellent

A soft hum slowly filled the silent room. Seven hours had passed in similiar fashion to the last few months of testing and construction which is to say, uneventful, nothing noteworthy happened. As the system finished booting the soft hum faded away away and the motionless chassis on the table slowly sat up, before the manufacturing computer finished its upload and shut down it had updated Marion of the current situation through video feeds and what limited data it had.

Priority 1 Conflict found... Preserve human life.. Initiate search and rescue mode..

Marionette stood up from the table and ran a quick control system check, several moveable surfaces along the chassis opened and closed as it rolled it's neck and opened and closed it's hands.

System Check: Pass... Scan results: 0 human life found.. Additional data required..

Walking over to the nearest console it pressed its hand down on the computer and a single wire crawled out its palm, slipping into the computer it established a connection to just the hard-drive which spun up into life as power surged into it before it promptly shut off after a bright spark and a bit of smoke fizzled out.

Hard drive overloaded.. Error... Conflict found in power conversion algorithum.. Solution: Not enough data.. Download result: Hard drive not connected to system.. Evaluation: Remote terminal.. Solution: Expand search..

Marionette made it to the door before it paused the robot turned around as if to regard the room. Focusing on the manufacturing machine as if in contemplation the cold logic of machine churning through its system seemed to skip a beat as it spit out yet another error.

Error.. Corrupted code found.. Error.. Unable to isolate.. Systems unaffected.. Error logged for administrator review.. Expanding search..

The robot turned away from the room as the system prompted it to resume it's search. Whatever caused it to stop was overwritten as the code reasserted itself and it pushed the door open. The stairway was dusty and after reaching the first floor it noticed access to the second floor was blocked by debris from the second floor caving in.

Observation: Building unstable.. Investigating.. Scanning area..

Moving closer to establish why the building collapsed a soft whirring spooled up before fading. The scan results yielded that there were marks of something chewing the foundation, the stairway was intentionally collapsed. Marionette moved some of the larger rocks that it established would not cause additional collapse to see if anyone was caught underneath.

Insect life form detected.. Anomaly found.. Radiation found: M4N4.. Observation: Insect shows signs of mutation from radiation.. Recording results.. 3000% increase in length... 17142.85714285714% increase in height... Conclusion: Dangerous... Threat Assessment to unit: minimal.. End recording... Resuming Search and Rescue..

Underneath the rubble was a giant cockroach, barely alive as it twitched, a majority of it had been crushed in the collapse and it had swelled in size to about four feet tall and four feet in length and had grown sharper limbs, it estimated that the past few months the insects had worryed away at the wall to isolate the first floor. Suggesting there were greater threats on the second floor, however with no access it could not verify so it turned around and continued through the first floor.

Initiating scan.. Signs of conflict found.. Shell casings found: Brass, 5.56x45nn NATO.. Friendly serial number found.. Operator missing.. Continue Search and Rescue..

The ground was covered in blast marks and bloodstains however there were no bodies from either insect or humans. On the ground were a few shell casings from the breif conflict that was had in the hallways months prior.  On each casing was a small microscopic serial number that could be picked up by the robot scans indicating a friendly in the area, however since the robot was programmed as a non-combatant it was supposed to keep looking for people to save.  It moved down the hallway until it found the door to a security station.

It ripped the handle off the door and stuck a finger up where a cable slipped through the hole and manually deactivated the manual lock before the door swung inwards.  This room too was empty however it had entered because it noticed another terminal and it put it's hand on the computer before threading its cable into the hard drive.

System connection initiated.. Managinng power flow.. Connection established.. Downloading... Error.. Hard drive integrity failing

The hard drive held out for about 10 seconds before it sparked and then melted into slag, the metal and plastic turned bright red and malformed into a viscous mass before quickly cooling into place.  During the 10 seconds however the robot managed to download the contents of the hard drive.

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Data acquired.. 346 personnel on shift during crisis.. Emergency evacuation procedures were initiated.. 13 member response team expired.. 346 personnel expired.. Conclusion: Proceed to nearest habitation and make contact with local law enforcement..

After reviewing footage, door logs and recorded phone and radio traffic the computer established that during the first month a handful of people had been sent to evacuate the facility at the start however they were killed by a wave of mutated cockroaches, a handful of people had survived and moved to the second floor where they held the chokepoint on the stairs while trying to use what little power remained to make contact and get more help. 

They lasted about a week before some mutated birds had broke through the windows and started worrying their numbers, in addition to this they also showed signs of radiation sickness, before all power was drained however the systems managed to record their final struggle against the mutated birds.  The birds had turned the second floor into an aviary and nested they tried to explore further into the building and eat the nearby insects but the cockroaches collapsed the stairs to prevent the birds from getting to them.

Objective updated: Locate nearest military installation.. Querying GPS.. No GPS signal found.. Internal navigation systems activated... Querying almanac data... Estimate nearest base 233 miles due north.. Nearest city 11 miles north by northwest.. Prioritising emergency response.. Objective updated: Proceed 11 miles north by northwest..

As it turned to leave the security room and began walking down the hallway.  An insect turned around the corner and spotted the unit, with a loud chitter the giant cockroach compressed the chiton plates and charged the robot.  Lifted off it's feet the unit tumbled once or twice before slowly standing up.

Threat detected... Priority one conflict found: Preserve unit.. Engaging self defence mechanisims.

As it regained its footing the computer churned out a solution based on the scans it acquired earlier and the same wire it used to hook up to the computer slid out from one palm to land in the other, the rest of the length pooling on the ground.

Targeting systems active.. Plotting trajectory.. Contact charging.. Firing

The wire flung from it's hand and coiled into a circle like a lasso, a seemingly impossible feat as the cable slipped right around the bug before tightening as the mechanisim originally spooling the wire reverses until it is secure and a charge of electricity lightens the line as the bug's charge is suddenly interrupted by the power in the line.  At the same time, a prompt is also returned to the robot.

Connection established.. Error.. Connection lost..

The insect slid to a rather anticlimactic stop, the 'battle' lasted less then 30 seconds before it had become paralyzed.  The robot stepped closer as it analyzed the insect, a bright light beamed down onto the insect as a significantly more thorough scan was initiated, the familiar whirring hum fills the air.

Overclock engaged.. System heat level rising 30%... System power: 78%... Full spectrum scan initiated.. Power surge detected.. Warning.. System power rising: 88%...95%.. Warning... System overload imminent.. System preservation activated.. Power bleed initiated.. System overheating.. Venting..

As the scan was initiated and finished the cable that was originally pumping power into it to keep the insect stunned reveresed it's flow and began draining the radioactive energy within the cockroach.  All of the robots systems abruptly turned on a second cable from its left hand flung out as power charged across it, lighting it up like a lightsaber as power arced and bled into the ground.  Thick plates along the chassis' back flipped open and hissed as large heat sinks were exposed to cool.

The moment passed as the energy was drained from the insect, which in turn ceased moving, apparantly it had died as the energy was pulled from it's system.  Another thrum of power rippled across the insect's body.

Connection established.. Error.. Connection lost.. Troubleshooting.. 30%... 90%.. Troubleshooting complete.. Connection established..

This time a steady stream of power flowed into the insect and it began twitching and jerking on the ground.  After about a minute of this the limbs started moving with a semblance of control another minute passed and the bug was moving back and forth.  With the cable attached like a leash the robot moved back into the security office and a plate on its chest opened up, small robots flowing like water poured out of the hole and descended onto the partially melted computer terminal before making their way over to the insect.

MCV's activated.. Objective: Cannibalize worstation Alpha.. Secondary Objective: Modify Insect Drone Alpha... Counter threat authorization: Lima Baker 5-5-6...

After it's connection to the insect, a new program had surfaced.  In the event the robot found itself in hostile territory, the governments minds did the best the could to work around the 'no killing humans' rule so they installed a method of spying on their enemies with the usage of insects and small animals.  Of course the robot's threat anaylisis was trigged by the same insect that triggered the code to activate it's threat monitoring capabilites.  The MCV's were busy installing hardware inside of the insect to allow Marionette to wirelessly control it and monitor it.

Modification complete.. Wireless signal: Excellent.. Drone Integrity: Good.. Primary Objective updated: Resume course..

With the insect left there to monitor the situation, it scuttled out of the room and began wandering down hallways, mapping the area out while the robot made it's way to the exit.  The trip was short and there were no incidents, cockroaches are mostly nocturnal and it was currently well into the afternoon.  Opening the door and stepping outside the robot looked around to find itself confronted with a large, lush forest.  To it's right there was a large cloth stretched across the wall of the building high enough to be seen by people, written in dark contrasting letters read: ALIVE INSIDE.

Priority one conflict found: Preserve human life..

The robot lifted it's hand and the wire shot out to pull the cloth down, tearing it down from the outside wall.  There was no one left alive inside.