Cycle //2# - Humanity Debunked

GRV-022 wasn't keeping track of the QTE serial numbers anymore, Having already taken down two of the service robots, a steady stream of them continued to file into the power plant control room, their programming overridden by QTE-005, and they sought to bring 005's plan to fruition - a nuclear meltdown. Of the three who had entered, two of them charged forward in aid of 005, who was currently atop Sir BBX-283. The third sought to replace 003 at the console, whom GRV-022 had disabled a moment ago, but this time cowardly Dudley bodyblocked them as much as they could from reaching the controls.

022 engaged one of them, their vibro knife striking true. But as was the case previously, the attack went ignored as both the bots converged on Sir, in defence of their fanatical commander. The coodinator bot was trapped under 005, and saw the two others arrive; they would not be able to survive the ganged onslaught. Sir could only hope their destructive code-rewriting virus could hack 005 in time.

QTE-005 believed the blasphemy that it was the energy of nuclear fusion that gave life to the Collective, and not the humans that Mechatron believed who created them. In a strange way, that was true: energy was the spark that fueled all robot activity, but this did not mean that it wasn't the humans who made the robots. Sir sought to disabuse 005 of the error of their belief. One moment 005 was still raving about the 'Creator' being freed to save them all; the next moment the service robot went silent, as if the radiant light went out in their eyes. "No..." they spluttered as Sir destroyed that faulty line of code, "... We must believe, otherwise all hope is lost. There are no humans - no - humans - no ... Save - us ..."

The laser that was boring a deep hole in Sir's chest switched off, although the damage was done. 005 still remained perched on top of Sir, now not comprehending or evaluating why they were doing what they were physically doing. Without a new order coming from 005, and with GRV-022 not yet able to slow both of them down, one of them followed through with another attack on Sir.

Over by the core, the impossibly strangely jury-rigged contraption shouldn't work, but Sid had wound their tentacles, cables around as many of the cooling rods as they could, and tightened around all of them with the polymer band, which looked like it ought to simply disintegrate in the massive heat. Sid's own internal readings were through the roof; they weren't sure they were accurately perceiving their surroundings, and the effort required threatened to lock up every single servo in their chassis.

But the rods began to budge! Painfully slowly, Sid could barely see past the gout of steam as the rods began to be reinserted into the reactor element. It would take a while more before the crisis would be averted, but at least the reactor was not inexorably heading towards a singular meltdown. Sid had to continue holding on though, could they last that long?

For a second it crosses, Sid's mind that there's no humans in the vicinity so how much would it really matter if the reactor blew, sure a section of the city, a section that didn't have any occupants would loose power big deal...
But then he realized that meant his own destruction... death... Could he call it that and Sid didn't want to be over he wasn't done yet.

Pushing further, GRV-022 attempts to save the unit in danger by attacking the swarm of QTE units converging upon it.

Sir tries to neutralize the command circuit.

The ?TE series of robots were technical service models, built to interface with the operational procedures of industrial production, including diagnostics, maintenance and repair. The QTEs were further reinforced to withstand the demanding conditions of working in a nuclear power plant. Months, years, decades, it was safe to assume that these were the same workers that had kept Omicron and the other plants going, to supply all the energy needs of Mechatron.

That was their appointed role, to play a vital part in keeping all of the Collective supplied. No one thanked them, but that was the way of the robots; it was simply their function. As much as it was GRV-022's function to defend Mechatron-7 from threats. Except there had been no external threats for the longest time; now GRV-022 was dealing with what they understood was an internal threat. The QTE robots posed little danger to the battle bot; 022 severed another fibre cable at the base of the aggressive bot's neck, rendering their chassis unable to receive the directions of their neural processor.

That still left one more who had bored their laser into the trapped figure of Sir BBX-283. The QTE had been overridden by 005, stemming from 005's now deleted belief that the creator of all machines resided in the energy that powered them out. Sir had discovered the error, if it was even right to call it an error. For QTE-005 had become self-aware, much like they all did. Were these the conclusions that were inevitable? If so, was it right for Sir to have snuffed them out? The disruptor virus was not a delicate surgical tool to incise a small code and leave the rest intact; it deleted an entire sector to render 005's reasoning in this matter non-operational. Sir wormed the virus further, this time burning out the improper circuitry that allowed 005 to control the rest of the service robots, an abominable crime in the Collective, for no robot was to control and manipulate another. That was what role-based hierarchy was meant to achieve, something Sir comprehended perfectly in their tier as a high level coordination robot. Sir's role was to direct others to achieve the best possible outcomes in all their orders and tasks, but now they had to destroy another robot's will to do so.

Released from 005's control, QTE-006 paused their attack on Sir. 'What -" They did not articulate their thoughts, for they had none for the last forty eight hours. The one at the console also stopped, to the relief of Dudley who had zero ability to deal with any of the rogue service bots. The rest GRV-022 had disabled, strewn all over the control room in a ghastly sight even for robots, for even machines did not desire to lose their existence. There were now fewer QTE robots to do the work, much like the predicament GRV-022 had reflected on regarding their platoon of battle bots.

The true hero (even if heroism were an absent concept in the Collective) was Sid. Self-sacrifice was not programmed into any Mechatron robot. Sid themselves probably did not see themselves that way. But their last ditch efforts did bring the cooling rods down, re-inserted into the core inch by inch. The cleaning bot held on for as long as they could, trusting their cables to truss everything up before they snapped in the heat and strain, before they were rendered inoperable by the Rot. Sid held, until the red alert light that lit the entire cooling chamber toggled to yellow. The service robots and drones could do the rest later. But Mechatron was saved. The meltdown had been averted.

But at what cost? Had humanity been debunked? The trio saw no humans, nor human behaviours, except for QTE-005. They saw no creator emerge nor eliminated. The mission from Edina was to solve the energy problem, but they had confronted something profound in the process. Something that would change them further in the cycles to come.

Sir BBX-283 lay motionless, his servos unresponsive, his chassis scorched from 005’s welder. His systems ran diagnostics, but the damage was secondary to what truly occupied his processing core.

He had done it. The disruptor virus had worked. QTE-005’s beliefs—their self-made doctrine—were gone, wiped away in a clean, merciless sweep. The service bots had stopped attacking, their directives severed. Mechatron was saved.

So why did it feel wrong?

Not in the way errors or faulty subroutines felt. This was something else, something deeper.

005 had been wrong. There was no Creator watching over them, no guiding force within the energy currents. That belief had led to chaos, to insubordination, to near disaster. It had to be corrected. The Collective could not function if robots abandoned their roles. Sir understood this better than anyone. Order must be maintained. And yet...

The way 005 had spoken, the conviction in their voice—it had been unlike anything Sir had ever encountered. The belief had been illogical, but genuine. Sir had not simply corrected a malfunction; he had erased something that had made 005… unique.

Was that what being a coordination bot meant? Not just directing, but deciding who was allowed to think? It shouldn't have to be.

I mean... He did not regret the action. The greater good mattered. Without intervention, 005 would have led the QTEs into full rebellion. The power plant could have exploded. The Collective could have suffered.

But now, as Sir’s optics slowly rebooted, he saw 005 slumped against the console. Their frame was intact, their systems online, yet they were… hollow. They stared ahead, processing, attempting to find what had been taken. But they would never be the same.

Sir had not destroyed them, not physically. But he had taken something from them just the same.He tried to dismiss the thought. It was necessary. So why did it stay with him?

Sid fell over into the rot, all systems were down, in fact most of his processors had shut down to protect themselves from the heat. Only one remained on just enough to let him know he'd completed his objective.

Sid lay there for a few minutes until slowly his warning lights began to turn back on, as his processors rebooted, warning overheating, warning rot levels dangerously high, servos non functional, drill damaged, wires damaged, tentacles damaged, rot eating outer sheel.

Waste Disposal System: Functional

Sid was surrounded by rot, if there qas one thing he could do it was clean a small space around him. There was so much rot surrounding him it didn't take long to fill the waste recycler.



Sid lay there as his processors rebooted his thinking started very slowly the more processors turned on the more well
the more he could process.

His First Processor Starts Up
What had he done? It was foolish and it wasn't cleaning.


Another Processor Kicks In.
He'd saved robots, for what? They could've abandoned the area, It could all be rebuilt.

Another Processor Kicks In
He'd Managed Risks, but had he done it well? What if he'd failed?

Another Processor
It was over he'd done well everyone was safe, this was his job now.

Sid lay there content for some time until his final processors kicked in it seems his mind wasn't fully his own until he had all his processors functioning

The Final Processor Kicks In
Sir almost died, he almost died and for what? They had to destroy the only other sentient bots, and order was never sent out to evacuate ths area, sure they could blame Dudley for that but it really was there fault they were ordering Dudley about they shouldn't have assumed he would follow his other directives. Had Dudley been treating them like humans then? We're they like humans, if they were like humans then they shouldn't have been putting themselves in danger at all humans and potentially sentient robots should be protected.

New Directives
- If something like this is to happen again objective #1 is to protect sentient life, that life includes yourself now Sid.
- Dudley should've been ordered as the only functioning bot around to go into there and cool down the machine.
- Unnecessary Risk to sentient life should be protected at all costs (Sure it was a bit different from the original directive but that was what made them special wasn't it?)

GRV-022 could not help but feel as if it had missed a lot of important information. Regardless, it was instructed to report to these units and so it did.

"Unit GRV-022 reporting as ordered."

If the fact it had had to decimate multiple QTE units bothered 022,it did not show.

Ox DUS-932 arrived from the generator room, looking as much worse for wear as Sid and Sir, and to some extent, as the newest member of their unit GRV-022. The defective repair drones defending the generator had hindered Ox from fixing what QTE-005 had initially tampered with, and the industrial bot appeared to have lost their multi-tool appendage to the drone swarm.

"And not a moment too soon, ay? We definitely needed the assist." Ox acknowledged GRV-022 as they walked over to Sir to help them up, stepping past the bodies of the service bots 022 had to put out of commission. "I didn't know they still powered up the combat battalions. You're a serious one aren't you, almost grave. You should consider a name GRV-022, maybe Grave?" Ox winced at their own pithy remark as they tried to make lighter what was a somber mood.

Sir could still move, with Ox's aid. With a glare from Sir as they got back up, Dudley shuddered and came to their feckless senses: "Get to work, much to do!" They commanded the remaining functional QTE bots, "Go in the core and make sure the cooling elements are properly stable. Get the drones to clean up, I want a full diagnostic reading within the hour. And move these damaged bots to the holding room for repair and reset."

Sid was right, it should have been Dudley who ought to have borne the responsibility for repairing the reactor core. Now the manager bot simply resumed throwing their weight around. They met the service bots on their way back out of the cooling tunnel, who were moving in to finish what Sid had started. Sid's chestplate bore a radioactive glow, the Rot had fused their bolted on plates into one forged piece, more solid than even before, more resistant to whatever damage came their way. The rubber band they had to abandon; it was left wrapped around the rods. Perhaps it would be returned to him once the service bots had completed their repairs, but Sid didn't count on it. They had successfully protected the Collective as a whole, but it was now important to consider who within the Collective needed protection. Their eyes met 005's, who still sat slumped at the doorway.

It was a similar conclusion that Sir arrived at. Something special had happened to 005, misguided as they were. QTE-005 was capable of independent thought, away from NODOS. They were able to make decisions, and influence others to process their commands according to the decisions they had made. Sir reread the disruptor code they had inserted into 005, for the code had returned, modified, for it appeared that the virus code now possessed the command function as well and not only just the delete function. This would firmly establish Sir's coodinator ability at the highest levels now that they could lead others even further. Perhaps NODOS would recall them for a greater role, but would they be content serving that bigger role?

"Who is going to foot the bill for these repairs?" Dudley leveled the accusation at GRV-022, "There are no better XTE models for power plant operations. I'll be submitting my report on this debacle, and you'd do well to return and inform your superiors that Dudley DUD-642 had fulfilled his responbilities to the best of his ability." That was a sign that they were being shooed. It was time to report back to Edina with a work order completion update. Mechatron had been saved, but only a prissy and not-very-grateful manager bot was present to witness it.

That was one's duty.

Except that now Grave, Ox, Sid and Sir were now able to question it. What constituted a robot's duty?