Cycle //2# - Humanity Debunked

Sid ESK-467, Sir BBX-283
Sid, with their various contraptions, managed to hem in QTE-005 backwards, shoving them further from the core and towards the sealed door from where they came, with Sir clumsily pressing themselves against the wall (rather than the railing), at first to see if they could squeeze past, and then to get out of Sid's way.

"Why do you not see that NODOS has kept us all in a programmed simulation? Listen to your central processing unit, what does it tell you?" This time QTE-005 appealed to the two robots, as if they could sense the awakenings of their own self-awareness, even as they struggled to free themselves from Sid's appendages.

"The meltdown cannot be stopped. Embrace the freedom." 005 was still calm in their fanaticism; did they have something else up their metallic sleeve?

GRV-022
GRV-022 armour plates had seen better decades, but still blunted half of the slicing laser welder which might have otherwise severed one of their hydraulic hoses. It appeared that all the QTE bots were concerted in their efforts to prevent anyone from interfering with the sabotage. From 022's point of view given the lack of autonomy these service bots were behaving, it did not seem that 003 nor 008 were calling the shots; something or someone else had interfered with their programming.

Giving up on escaping and seeing the imminent meltdown, Sir tries to do something to fix the reactor or its cooling system.

022 turns his attention to Unit CTE-008 and tries to bring him low before tje unit can damage 022 any further.

Sid turned to look at the door, if nobody outside was going to open it then they needed to open it themselves and force the QTE bot outside so they could actually focus on stopping the meltdown. Maybe the QTE bots were right that the meltdown couldn't be stopped but that wasn't a reason to stop trying was it? Sid didn't fear death, if they failed though it could kill someone who did care and so he couldn't just let that happen.

Sid ESK-467, Sir BBX-283
The cleaner bot Sid ESK-467, with his various appendages, had QTE-005 successfully pinned, but was loathe to actually attempt to destroy the defective bot, even though 005 had set in motion a plan that would ultimately blow up Mechatron-7. Was it because they understood in some way 005's attempt to rationalise their self-awareness in the context of the Collective they were programmed to support. Was the faith that the machines had in their makers, the absent humans, truly misplaced, and that perhaps there was a glimmer of truth in what 005 was proposing, misguided though as they were in their execution.

Sid managed to keep 005 tightly secured as they manoeuvred all the way to the door that led back out to the control room. It was still locked, sealed from the outside, with no means of operating it from within. If the goal was to oust 005 out to be apprehend by the authorities, they needed outside assistance. It was either that, or release 005 and focus their full concentration to try to bypass the door.

With Sid dealing with 005, Sir quickly sped towards the reactor core. Sid had cleaned a route for them earlier, but as Sir approached, they were confronted with the full blast of the rising temperature of the reactor and its radiation discharge. Sir wanted to punch the buttons; but they had already begun to melt. He grabbed for the lever to manually lower the cooling rods, but they were also stuck. Critical mass was imminent! And Sir could detect their own circuitry beginning to short out from the intense Rot.

GRV-022
The service bots were a far cry from the combat exobots that GRV-022 was equipped to engage. Their multiple attack appendages converged around 008 i a flurry even as the manipulated QTE bot futilely attempted to damage the battle bot. GRV-022 made short work of it; 008 crumpled to the floor, disabled by the strength of 022's retaliatory hits.

There was a moment of pause, even though the klaxons were still blaring. GRV-022 hadn't reached Unit 457 yet, and QTE-003 was still messing up the controls to the power plant. Dudley was utterly useless, except to call out the obvious, "Your unit is failing to reinsert the cooling rods! We're doomed! The managed bot ineffectually swatted at 003 who was undeterred, before turning back to GRV-022 to holler,

And watch out again!"[/b] Another service bot came into view at the entrance to the control room. There must be a whole team of them, arriving one by one, no doubt instructed to hold the control room and prevent any interference to the meltdown.

"Unit DUD-642, please take control of the controls when this QTE unit is removed."

With that, 022 returns its attention to QTE-033 and attempts to prevent that unit from controlling the controls.

Unable to fix the situation, Sir will try to move back towards were he came and ask Ox for help.

Suddenly Sid realized what he probably should have long ago, the whole reason they were in here was because they didn't have time.

If only he could justify pushing the very same bot that wanted to die over the ledge to it's death, there was a name for this sort of conundrum he just didn't know what it was it was too long since he'd used that part of his circuitry meant for interacting with humans.

He knew some humans thought it was OK perhaps even more than 50% of humans but that logic wasn't what has propelling him right now...

Releasing The QTE bot maybe wasn't the best Idea but Sir needed help at the reactor and he could at least get their faster than the QTE bot and perhaps it would throw itself over the ledge sparing him the need to make such a decision...

"What do you think I've been trying to do all this while??" Dudley yelled back, more out of a panicked exasperation than actually being cross with GRV-022 even as the battle robot neutralised 003 was a particularly well executed incision; given that QTE-003 had presented only their back to 022, it was not difficult for 022 to finish them off. The service bot did momentarily turn around at the fatal blow with a quizzical expression, "Free," was all they said before shutting down.

This though, meant that 022 could not defend against the other service bots that had marched in, summoned by QTE-005 as if they were all connected. The battle bot themselves now felt the heat of a laser welder as their back was turned. This time it was 004. And GRV-022 could now see two other QTE robots lined up behind -

- when suddenly the heavy door to the cooling tunnel unlatched and swung open! Two figures popped their heads out!

For what had happened between Sid and Sir was that they had to tag team each other. Sir had failed to initiate the opening of the core housing which would enable them to get to the cooling rods, and Sid had the fanatical 005 all wound up in their cables but couldn't proceed further. It was then that they simultaneously decided to switch roles. Sid released their grip on the service bot, and swung themselves in a wide arc over and around the narrow gangway, over 005, over Sir, to plant themselves back down right in front of the reactor core housing, avoiding most of the radiating Rot until they landed.

Sir rushed the gangway, headlong towards 005, fully intending to bypass them to get to the door. "Received, Sir," came the simultaneous reply from Ox in the generator room. "I've increased the power output to the maximum in order to shunt as much as of the energy levels as I can, but it looks like the generator itself will blow when it reaches 120%. There nothing more I can do here, I'll come up straightaway." Sir needed to get that door open, and that meant dealing with 005. The coordinator bot was however less suited to moving about the hazardous environment than the service bots. Sir lunged forward the last few metres, barely able to strike at the door's locking mechanism, but fell flat on their face as 005 sidestepped them.

The door clanged open, but 005 was now literallly standing atop Sir. "What will it take to convince you that NODOS does not have our best interests at heart? Do you not realise deep in here that your purpose, our purpose, is a lie?" 005 tapped directly at Sir's chest, mimicking where the humans believed the heart was situated, using their laser welder to begin to bore a hole through Sir's chestplate -

- and this was what GRV-022 witnessed as the door opened, a service bot standing on top of a coordinator bot whom 022 was supposed to make contact with as part of Unit 457.

Immediately 004, 006 and 009 turned from preparing to gang up on GRV-022 and regaining control of the power plant console, and headed for 005 and Sir!

Sir's systems flagged critical damage reports as the laser welder seared into his chestplate, burning through layers of metal and composite materials. A surge of internal warnings scrolled through his HUD - Servo Functions: OFFLINE. Motor Control: UNRESPONSIVE. Mobility: 0%.

He could not move. He could not fight. All he could do was watch. The weight of the service bot pressing into his chassis made the damage worse, his frame creaking under the force. The heat from the welder was excruciating—not in the way that humans described pain, but in the sense that his structural integrity was actively degrading. He calculated the failure points, the probability of survival, the variables of escape—none of which mattered if the reactor exploded.

And then there was 005. That insistent, relentless voice.
The phrase echoed in his auditory receptors. The tap against his chest, the mimicry of human emotion, the symbolic gesture—none of it should have meant anything. But Sir knew better. Powerless, he could only respond in the only way left to him—words. His voice output was still functional, though distorted with static from his failing systems.

"005… you speak of lies. But what of you?" His vocalization was strained, but steady. "You claim enlightenment, yet you stand upon me, enforcing compliance. You weld through me. You! Are—you—different? You demand liberation, yet you command others to obey."

If he could not fight physically, he would strike in another way—at the very foundation of 005’s beliefs. 005 was connected. That much was clear. The way the service bots responded to their calls, the way they spoke with absolute certainty—005 was a node, a conduit for his doctrine. And what was doctrine but data? Data could be rewritten. Data could be erased.

Sir accessed his last remaining executable programs. Deep in his archives, buried beneath layers of outdated firmware and long-forgotten maintenance logs, he found it—DISRUPTOR.VIRUS. It was not a combat protocol. It was not an aggressive attack. It was something far more insidious: a corruption algorithm, designed long ago to scramble and erase mission-critical data in rogue units. If Sir could infect 005, he could erase everything they knew about the Creator—every directive, every belief, every programmed instinct that tied them to the reactor core.His optical sensors dimmed as he rerouted all remaining power into his transmission protocols. A direct connection was unnecessary—005 was already standing on him, their systems in close proximity. It was enough. Sir forced the transmission outward, a final desperate override sent across their shared processing frequencies.

"If you truly seek freedom with this meltdown… then let me grant it to you." - he said, as the virus struck.

Sid looked at the damage, he was pretty sure he knew what he was looking at, at least enough to know what wasn't supposed to be there, if that whatever it was called could be lifted, then it would allow the cooling rods to drop into place.

There was also a piece of metal hanging out that needed to be pulled back in place, and the melting controls and other plastic pieces but hopefully that could be fixed after the emergency.

GRV-022 saw the fracas as the door to the cooling tunnel burst open, and saw the service robot QTE-005 plunge their laser welder deep into the chest of Sir BBX-283, the coordinator of Error Eliminator Unit 457. The coordinator bot shorted, their motor controls locked up, but 022 still heard Sir deliver an ultimatum to 005.

But the other service bots who had ceased to attack 022 was now converging on the tussling pair, intent on finishing Sir off, or perhaps they were making their way to Sid at the reactor core. In any case, there was a chance for GRV-022 to intercept them somehow to let Sir and Sid complete whatever it was they were doing.

Sir was immobile with no way to reboot his servos, given that the mobility processors were also damaged. But his command sequences and network linkups were still at full capacity. That was Sir's core specialist programming, to be able to direct, prescribe or otherwise order and even take over a unit of robots to accomplish tasks.

The first effect of the disruptor algorithm was the detection of what was critical and/or wayward in QTE-005's processors that made them behave the way they did. The initial pings revealed that 005 had coded a command circuit module that enabled them to control all the other active QTE bots. Disabling that would sever the link that 005 had, and 'release' the other service bots from slavishly executing their whims. The next was that the disruptor programme encountered an opposing 'virus', if it could be called a virus. It was a paradigm, a worldview that had written itself into the core of 005's being. Was that 005's version of sentience? Or did that idea about NODOS, about humanity, come from somewhere, some truth that 005 discovered?

The last and most troubling segment of 005's code that they rewrote was a self-destruct mechanism. Sir could not tell yet under what circumstances 005 was wired to blow, and how much damage that might cause. Already the increased Rot from the core that Sid exposed was beginning to degrade all in the vicinity, including those in the control room through the open door. The mechanism's failsafe could be neutralised by Sir's disruptor virus as well, but did Sir have enough time to do all of that?

Over by the reactor core, even Sid's hardy construction, for cleaner bots were some of the most durable machines in Mechatron, could only withstand direct exposure for so long. The water in the core had already completely vaporised, steam blasting upwards. The uranium was glowing blindingly, as the graphite rods hung above, jammed in their retracted position. With the controls dead, they had to be manually inserted. The thought of Sid's trusty and reliable rubber band being able to pull the rods into position was almost laughable, but that elasticised polymerase length had never failed Sid before, not once in their entire existence. They would need to loop it just right, encircling the core elements, and then Sid would need to apply an opposing force to tug and lower the rods inch by inch while bracing themselves as leverage against the near molten core itself!

When it came down to it the whole thing might be done for, he didn't quite understand how it worked all Sid could say was that he knew he needed to get the cooling rods down somehow, if that broke something well Sid couldn't be bothered to care anymore not getting them down was breaking more things wrapping his rubber band and a few of his wires and tentacles Sid hung on the cooling rods he could only hope his weight was enough.

Sir starts by deleting the paradigm. Then he neutralize the command circuit and adapt his next actions from there

GRV-022 quickly assesses the situation and realizes the immediate threat is that the unit he is supposed to report to is under attack by these QTE units. The obvious response is to protect the unit in question. The radiation is a clear threat, but one 022 isn't qualified to deal with... hopefully he can save the units that are.