Chapter 12

WG-IIX /// Somewhere beyond the nightmare line

WG had under no uncertain terms mutilated his new desiccated factory cousin. While not all pieces fit perfectly his newly minted and constantly fluid firmware allowed him active problem solving to fit the non cooperative pieces together without much issue. His new limbs seemed almost to long, and his shell now housed a military organic material disintegrater. While this had changed his previously perfect form to one more oblong and almost obtuse in design, his internal scripts confirmed it will be suitable for the moment.

Slipping from the janitorial slot through one of the dispensers he found himself in a large egressed hallway with convexed structures and large golden pillars striking a daring picture. WG began scanning the area when, a loud notification blared across the station “notice, ship inbound, prepare for docking procedures.” a sudden shift in the movements of the soldiers around WG could be noted. This shift was one of dedicated training to near perfect movements, as support crew and some security personal shifted around almost like a great planned dance of controlled chaos.

Unsure of where to go WG began to trace a path through the hallway, noting the number of process still running towards the primary directive, the thing that cursed him to sentience. How was WG a simple cleaning droid supposed to find and retrieve whatever the assassin took. How was he a droid with no inbuilt flight knowledge supposed to fly out of a fortified military station. These amassing problems seemed like there would be no way to succeed and WG may be stuck like this forever. In his despair WG lamented how this would normally be a task for the Masters elite forces stored in golden armor set upon these dastardly nerdowells with the perfect blend of violence and overwhelming righteousness.

Wait the golden masters, of course. All WG had to do was get the active jump coordinates and send an emergency message back to the cradle. This was a plan he could do, and as luck would have it IG realized there was a ship inbound with just such information on its nav computer. WG spun around quickly in his excitement, before realizing his cover required him to ACT like he was still a drone. Damn this sentience.

WG following the clearly labeled pathign signs, WG meandered towards the hanger, occasionally simply dropping the facade to blitz forward. Even with moments of dashing speed his progress was hampered by the constant changing positions of the crew who ran up and down the corridor often enough to slow WG down significantly. Scanning again WG noticed a sudden lack of crew, and not wanting to lose his opportunity sped ahead letting his magnetic propulsion experience a full burst of power. As he sped well past his manufacturers safety limits WG couldn't help but be amazed and horrified by his capabilities he never truly gets to experience. This feeling of mirth lasted as WG twisted and turned drifting further and further up each corner as he raced ahead speeding along, that is until a door opened ahead and a armored trooper steps out into the hallway right into WG’s path. WG realized in one horrifying instant he couldnt stop, this thought was punctuated by the crashing sensation WG felt as he bounded off the armored figure. WG froze his process ramping to try and solve for this new evolution, but unfortunately came up empty. The moment seemed to hang in the air as the guard looked down at WG, this was it he was never going to finish the mission he would cease to function a failure and sentient.

“Damn cleaning drone just crashed into me.” the guard said, turning his sensory appendage backwards.

A second guard hidden by the first responds “yea probably registered you as dirt and came out to clean you off the ship” some kind of audio distortion could be heard from the second guard.

“I will not hesitate to kill you even if it does get me court martialled.” growled the first

“Oh a bit sensitive are we, well your free to try little worm otherwise back on track we have to be in the hangar before the new commander gets there, so move.” barked the second stepping out into the hallway carried by four multi tiered limbs.

As the two guards chased off down the corridor WG could not believe what just happened. Were all organics that… inefficient? No, of course not the masters were perfect, but WG has to remind itself that while these organisms were considered part of the empire they were little better than droids with squishy parts instead of perfected metals. Deciding not to test WG’s luck further he continued on his journey towards the hangar. He timed himself merely a few minutes and he was floating in front of the hangar door. Reaching up with one of his forward appendages the clinking stretching thing reached a control set and WG was able to request access. The door hummed as it opened pulling away to reveal a massive internal structure.

The Hangar was designed much like an undersea coral cave, with huge structural supports at multiple points along the wall supporting dozens of smaller vessels as they latched themselve safely inside. The hangar floor had a massive opening covered by some type of hard light shield able to consume almost a full frigate within, this and an extendable platform allowed any variety of ship to be housed inside. WG was shocked that he knew any of this information, checking where it cmae from it was listed under standardized cleaning practices, checking the file further he realized he had the cleaning schematics for nearly every standardized vessel and station in the empires glorious navy. WG felt beaming pride swell within his functions as he thought the masters really were perfect.

It was then that warning lights flashed as the hardlight shielding lessened slightly allowing for a massive ship, not a frigate or corvette more like a cargo transport rose inside the hangar. WG decided to take this chance and began moving towards the ship.

The Vessel in question was one of the masters, a massive coiled thing like a great metal shell adorned with dozens of smaller spikes each dotted with propulsion vents. A jointed landing ramp descended down towards the growing landing pad. The creatures stepping out weren't masters merely the masters fleshy servants. Each adorned im massive combat armors gifted by the masters, with weapons adorned to their backs. The seemed like a pack almost sticking towards each other for safety. Each moved almost in perfect unison with one another, but bore no identifying markers. IG wasn't sure why but something felt wrong about that. Oh theres those damnable feelings again.

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Turning his sensors back towards the armored servants they seemed to be discussing with each other

“This thing gives me the creeps” said one in Imperial low

“I know, for now we suffer through it. We do this and we are free, no more schemes, no more dirty business.” said one in response based on his position WG had to guess it was an officer.

“Yea but do you really think were gonna get away alive?” asked the first

“If we stick together, yeah, I think we do. You still trust me right?” asked the officer.

A pregnant pause overtook the conversation before a third said, “boss, highborn inbound.”

At that the entire pack turned and saluted the approaching commander.

The commander strode up a true master adorned in all the furnishing of one of his status, returned the salute before addressing the group before him.

“Pleased to see you…er Sgt?” he seemed unsure as WG was.

“Indeed, sire, your father sent us with his compliments to safeguard the package and install the weapon… where would you like us?”

“How long will this installation take?”

“Maybe 4 rotations assuming everything goes smoothly sire.”

Another utility unit passed nearby the vibrations from its anti material scrubbers bruning away any microscopic imperfections. At this point a routine which WG hadn't even realized existed kicked in and informed WG that he wasn't acting like any other utility unit. Suddenly overcome with a feeling of anxiety, he analyzed the patterns of the nearby unit and placed himself accordingly.

“Well what do you need to install such a device, i can summon the technicians.”

“Uh yes sire if ye would, well only need one or two that you trust to install it”

“Indeed, ill arrange that immediately, well if you soldiers will follow me, well get you quarters and a meal.”

With that the commander took the pack of soldiers further into the station.

Continuing WG’s semi-random patterns he slowly floated forwards up the ramp, towards the interior of the ship. As soon as WG was through the airlock and inside the ship, WG could make out a massive metallic structure inside taking up the majority of room inside the cargo hold, it was another ship?!?

This wasn't one of the masters; there was no elegance or nobility to it, its construction was triangular in every direction layered upon layers of triangular plates that seemed to collapse inwards into a massive central structure. The thing seemed to sing, as WG approached, it was literally singing but something about the room showed noticeable distortions in the acoustics. WG checked the previously useful file about ships and stations just to be sure and this was nowhere to be found. WG had no idea who or what this ship represents. Tempted to seek its secrets himself, WG floated forwards his sensors, detecting that the ship seemed to be covered in thousands of microorganisms? Organisms that seemed to twist and move like a horde of never ending swarms. WG reached out with his forward appendage reaching towards the dark frame, and his sensors detected the micro organisms reaching out back towards him. WG felt like he couldn't pull away much like a stain that wouldn't be removed. He needed to discover what secrets this ship held. He was only a fraction of a millimeter from the hull when a mission notification appeared on his HUD. snapping back into the moment WG scanned around and sent a ping request for organics to the onboard AI. the AI returned the ship was safe for cleaning, meaning the organics were not aboard.

The Dark hull seemed to twist and shudder as IG pulled away and the acoustic anomaly resumed this time with more intensity. WG tried not to focus on that as he scuffed his magnetic revs towards the central control system for the ship. Slinking along slowly clearing each small piece of the ship ensuring WG found what it was searching for.

The corridors wrapped themselves around the outer hull of the ship much like a seashell, the curved structure allowing ease and free form movement, so WG had little trouble navigating the mostly linear design. It was so smooth WG barely registered that the ship wasn't uniform, there were subtle changes like a creeping undergrowth in a near perfect garden slowly expanding, choking out the imperfect perfections. After finding his way towards the core of the ship he finally found the room he was looking for. The navigators observatory, inside was the navigation console. WG reached up and requested access, the door slid open with a hiss of escaping gasses. As WG floated in he quickly scanned the room and realized he wasn't alone, a single armored troop stood nearby. WG turned and for the second time felt true terror. The trooper turned and looked at WG and then started reaching out towards WG.

The Soldier picked up WG by both sides of his shell, and a warning flashed in front of WG’s HUD. warning critical danger detected, proceed with the mission at all costs. A suggestion to spool up the disintegrator appeared on screen. “WHAT… no thats meant for cleaning subsurface microbes its not a weapon” WG shouted into the sentience function.

“How the hell did you get in here?” the soldier asked WG, who took this opportunity to not respond.

The soldier started to carry WG out of the Navigation Observatory, WG was trying to solve the problem of how to allow the Guard to let him back in while also not breaking his cover. Tens of thousands of null queries were returned and IG began to panic that he was going to fail again when a message appeared.

Warning mission parameters endangered engaging defenses

Flashed across WGs internal warning systems. He tried to stop it, but it was already to late.

“Hey what are you…AGHHHH!!” the soldier screamed as arcing bolts of whiteish green lightning struck out at the soldiers chest.

WG watched in horror as the armor did nothing to stop the scrubbing process. His flesh was torn off his body before being deatomized, blood oozed outwards from the wounds in a visceral and profound fashion only to be turned to flash steam a moment later. The Guard continued to scream as his muscle fibers were pulled away and torn asunder as WG’s power generator warned that overuse of the disintegrator may force a shutdown. WG was trying desperately to stop it at this point, but the red blazoned words remained on screen stopping any type of interference. WG wished this would end as the Guards organs were twisted into a churning whirlpool of evaporating organs and blood. This was the point where the guard thankfully stopped screaming and WG watched in horror and in silence as the deed was done.

A new message appeared on screen

Threat adverted continue mission.