ZER0 has a minion!

C4t the 8L08-K1tt3h

Name: 047951 (Zero)

Occupation: Ship Engineer

Pronouns: They/Them

Age: ???

Species: Android

Sexual Orientation: Asexual

Details: Zero is a regular android, built from the Mother Machine to perform maintenance and tech support, but easily programmable to do other simple tasks.

The Lieutenant stands up from his chair and walks towards a window, facing outside. He watches some men working on a ship for some seconds before continuing:

- Captain, the information you gave me paired with some research leads me to believe that the C1MT52 is still somewhere around those bases in the desert. As you may know, C1MT52 is a bio weapon made to be used against robots only. It was to be decisive in our win against them. Unfortunately, the weapon was lost when those bases disappeared. With your permission, we want to scan your robotic partner's memory to see what exactly happened at the base and where this weapon could possibly be.

Max shares a confused look with Sasha:

- and where do I come in? It seems that all you need is the tin can.

- I also want to send people to those bases to see first-hand if any info was left behind. You with your knowledge of the place would lead a small crew down there.

Max nods slowly and stands up from his chair:

- alright. Can do.

- great! I'll send the info of your crew mates on your communication device. Go meet them ASAP, please, as this mission is of extreme importance. Also take your robot to engineering so they can give a look at it.

The Captain leaves the room with Sasha in tow. Messages arrive on his comm device. They head to engineering, where machinery is scattered all over the place. The same group of robots from the cafeteria are there and they are as interested in Max's robot as they were before.

Someone approaches Max from behind:

- excuse me, sir. The Lieutenant warned us that you were coming.

Max turns and is face to face with the robot he met back at the infirmary:

- oh wow, it's you!

He steps back and eyes the robot up and down. They smile and bow slightly:

- allow me to introduce myself. I'm 027519, but you can call me Zero.

They offer their hand to Max, but he retrieves his to his pockets and scoffs:

- right right, you are going to give a look at my tin can?

Zero tilts their head, but quickly realizes that he is talking about the robot and gives a light chuckle:

- yes sir! You see, I am a ship engineer, but because of my fascination on old technology, I'm usually the one they bring old thingamajigs to.

They smile and approach Max's robot, that tries to hide behind his legs. He pushes the robot away with his foot:

- you go with the talking microwave, tin can.

Zero pays no mind to his comment and beckons the robot with their hand:

- come here, old fella. I won't hurt you.

The robot slowly wheels closer to Zero, that wastes no time opening a little cap behind the robot's head. They mess around with the wiring before pulling a plug out, making the robot shut down. Max steps forward:

- hey, what did you do!? Is it okay!?

Zero looks at him startled:

- what? Oh, it is alright. Don't worry Captain. I just have to shut it down to be able to remove its memory without damaging anything.

- ok... Just... Be careful...

He says while stepping back. Zero smiles and carefully removes a memory card from the robot's head. They inspect it for some seconds and then walk towards a big computer. Plugging it in, a giant screen in front of them informs that the file's type was no longer supported on this machine. You could hear the others robots curse and whisper around, but Zero seemed unfazed:

- well, seems like I'll have to bust out the ol' reliable.

They walk towards a back room and Max and Sasha follow them. There is an old computer. Max recognizes that it looks like the ones back at his base. Zero plugs the card in and the computer comes to life, showing many files on its screen. The files are sorted by date and you can see that some are just blank. Zero searches around the files, looking for the ones around the time that Max was frozen.

Max can see on the thumbnails some familiar faces and places. His old team mates, his friends, his room, the neighboring base. He then spots the exact date that they were frozen and points at it:

- can I... Can I see this one?

Zero frowns and looks at him:

- I don't know if you should, Captain.

He looks at Sasha, who shrugs:

- it's your past, Captain. If you wanna see it, go ahead.

He nods at her and then at Zero, who reluctantly opens the video file.

The file opens and even thought the footage is a little corrupted, you can clearly hear what's happening.

It's pitch black, but shots and screams can be heard. It goes on like that for a while. Zero skips forward to see if anything else happens. After at least half an hour, light comes into vision. It seems that the robot was inside of a closet. Max is the one who opens the door and pulls it outside.

"He dusts off his coat and walks towards a group of soldiers that were waiting for him by the corridor. The robot follows him as it listens to their conversation. They are talking about the attack. It was a robot rebel attack and they left the base in shambles. There are bodies of both humans and robots around the ground.

A man in a lab coat approaches the soldiers and informs them that after a quick medical checkup, they are to head to the cryosleep room. They all grumble about hating all the cryosleep shit and Max reminds them that if they want to stay behind to clean, that would be fine too.

Max steps inside the medical bay, where a young man in a lab coat approaches him in a hurry and clings to his neck, hugging him tightly:

- oh my gosh, you're okay! I was so worried!

He gives him a light kiss on the forehead and smiles:

- why worry about me? You know nothing puts me down! And what tries? Gets fucked!

Max flexes his mechanical arm and Lionel chuckles:

- you're so full of yourself!

They both laugh together while a doctor comes by to check on Max. While being examined, Max sighs:

- this was the worst attack in months... These robots don't seem ready to give up.

Lionel stays silent. He approaches the robot, touching it around the head:

- did you keep it safe?

- yeah, pushed it inside of a locker when I heard the shots getting closer.

Lionel nods slowly while lightly petting the robot:

- Celia will be happy to know that. Many of our robots seem to have been destroyed.

Max scoffs:

- shouldn't they like, not destroy some of their own?

Lionel looks at him:

- I don't think they consider our robots as "one of them". How is he, doctor?

The doctor just nods and leaves. Max gets up from the bed and holds out his hand to Lionel:

- I guess we can just head to cryosleep.

Lionel smiles and holds his hand. At the corridor out of the medical bay they find Celia, who is hurriedly hushing some small robots inside of a room. She sees the boys and smiles, then she sees Max's robot and throws her hands on the air:

- YES! you're okay! I was so worried about you!

She runs right past them and to the robot, poking around its body. Max crosses his arms and snarks sarcastically:

- yes, Celia, me and your brother are fine! Nothing to worry about!

She waves her hand at him dismissively:

- of course you guys are! I had no doubts about that. This little fella on the other hand...

- don't worry, I chucked him into the nearest locker I found when the rebels got closer to our location.

She gasps at Max, putting her hands on her hips dramatically:

- you did not do that to the poor thing!? You left it in the dark for that long?

Max raises an eyebrow, but Celia burst into laughter before he can respond:

- kidding, kidding! I'm glad you kept it safe.

She gets on the robot's eye level and whispers:

- alright buddy, activate cryosleep protocol.

- cryosleep protocol activated.

- what are your directions?

- I am assigned to keep my master, Max, safe and to provide assistance during and after the cryosleep process.

- yep, that's right!

- what you whispering to the tin can over there, girl?

Max says, waving to Celia to follow them through the corridor. She gives a thumbs up to the robot and walks over to them as they head to the cryosleep room. The robot follows them but stops by the door as it lines up with other robots, each one assigned to a different person.

All the people in the base gets in their caskets and the process starts. The sounds of machines revving and each casket closing and freezing echoes all around the now empty base. Once they're all done, the base falls into silence, with only the low murmur of the machines going around."

Nothing happens for a while, so Zero looks at Max, who is fixated on the screen, watching all his mates sleeping peacefully. They reach for the controls and skip forward again. After around two hours, the lights on the base all start to flicker, so Zero resumes the video and they all huddle closer to the screen.

"An explosion can be heard somewhere on the base, but the robots all stay still. Suddenly one of them gets shot from behind. Then another. On the robot's point of view a rebel stands with a gun in hand. It strides around the room and shouts:

- commander! They've started the cryosleep process!

A tall and bulky robot enters the room, walks towards the cryosleep caskets and flashes a smile towards the other robots:

- fools. Did they really think that we left? Did they really think that those guards outside would hold us? Humans always lose because of how arrogant they are.

It approaches the control panel that controls all the caskets:

- 120 hours? Five days just to clean? Humans really need this much just to sweep some floors and patch some walls? They're so... Unproductive. That's why we are winning.

As it says that, the robot pulls its gun, points to the control panel and shoots it around 10 times, making sparks fly and the lights around the base all go down. It looks at the others and barks:

- go look for the weapon!

It steps towards the door and gestures towards the robots:

- and put these lowly things down.

The other rebels shout in uproar as they all pull their guns and start to shoot the robots.

Max's robot makes its way towards the caskets, hiding behind them. It's positioned against a wall and only the shots and shouts can be heard. When it finally quiets down, footsteps going out of the room can be heard. The robot stays still, as faint sounds and voices can be heard from the base. After some minutes, a ship can be heard leaving the premises."

Zero, Sasha and Max are all silent, just looking at the screen. Max sighs heavily and looks away, staring at his mechanical hand. He closes his fist tightly. Zero steps closer to him and tries to put their hand on his shoulder, but Max pulls away and scowls at them in disgust. He then looks at Sasha and scoffs:

- I hope now you understand why I hate them so much...

He throws a quick glance at Zero, scoffs again and turns his back to leave.

Max wakes up and does some stretches. He is pretty used to life at the military base by now, knowing all the nooks and crannies of the place. A knock on his door makes him stumble forward as the position he was wasn't really steady. He steps closer to the door and half opens it.

On the other side is Zero, with a smile on their face:

- Good morning Captain! I'm here to retrieve your personal machine!

They step aside and Max's robot comes into view, wheeling closer to him:

- good morning, Max. Today is-

- yeah yeah yeah, I know, I know. Welcome back, tin can.

He pushes the robot inside of his room with his foot and is about to close the door when Zero gestures for him to wait:

- wait Captain! I've also been instructed by the Lieutenant to introduce you to the rest of your crew and show you the ship we'll be using.

- we?

Max says, raising his eyebrow at Zero:

- yes sir! As an expert in old technology and a ship engineer, I've being assigned by the Lieutenant to be part of your crew.

They offer their hand to Max:

- I cannot wait to work with you, Captain!

Max scoffs and slaps away their hand:

- yeah, no. I'm not working with you.

And with that, he closes the door of his room, leaving Zero outside, dumbfounded. Max resumes his stretching, only to be interrupted by another knock on the door. He tries to ignore it, but the knocking won't stop. Finally he huffs and walks towards the door, opening it in haste:

- I told you I won't work with you!

- aw man, but why? And here I thought that I left a good impression on ya.

Doctor Yuja laughs, his tail swishing from side to side. Max blushes:

- oh, doctor! I'm sorry. I thought you were the sentient coffee machine.

Zero scoffs from behind the doctor and crosses their arms:

- I'm still here, you know.

Max grumbles and roll his eyes as Yuja giggles. The doctor pokes Max on the side and smiles:

- guess what, Captain? Lieutenant wants me to be the assigned doctor to your mission. It seems that now we are crewmates!

He raises his hand for a high five, but Max just raises his eyebrow at him:

- why do we need a doctor? We are just going around an old abandoned base in the middle of the desert.

Yuja tilts his head:

- come on! It's a decrepit place! What if the roof falls on someone or one of you pass out because of the sun? Dehydration is real on a place like that, you know?

Max waves his hand dismissively:

- yeah yeah, got it. We need a doctor.

He then gestures towards Zero:

- so, you're going to gather the crew around or not?

Zero perks up and smiles:

- yes Captain! May I suggest that we all meet at the hangar in half an hour?

Max shrugs and laughs sarcastically at Yuja:

- yeah sure, whatever you say!

He gestures to Yuja to come in his room and as the doctor steps inside, the door is once again closed on Zero's face.

.................................................................................................................................................................................

Max and Yuja make their way towards the hangar. On the way there, they find Sasha, who is just leaving the shooting range. Max approaches her:

- good morning, miss Petrova. Heading to the hangar?

She looks at him and at Yuja:

- sure. You guys going there now? I'll join ya.

The three of them head outside, where the ships are docked. Zero sees them and beckons them closer to a ship. As they approach, Max notices two more people with Zero. A nervous looking young man fidgets with his hands as he stares at his feet. By his side is a tall Anthro snake, that is more concerned about looking at the ship than at the three of them.

Zero smiles:

- Captain, this is professor Phillip Dahkar. He is our most skilled bio engineer, specialized in bio weapons.

Phillip shoots a quick glance at Max and bows lightly:

- it will be a pleasure to work with you, sir. I hope I can be useful...

He says quietly. Max nods and gestures with his head towards the snake man:

- and that guy?

Zero clears their throat to get the snake's attention. He loudly sighs and turns towards Max, his tongue slithers out, making a loud sizzling noise:

- I'm Drake. I'll be your pilot. This- he pats the ship- is my baby. You guys respect my baby and we won't have problems, capiche?

Max raises his eyebrow at him and nods:

- ok, sounds fair.

He looks at Sasha, who has been standing silently looking away from them:

- Miss Petrova, would you like to introduce yourself or...

She looks at them with disinterest:

- Sasha. I shoot people. If you idiots only talk to me when necessary, I might not shoot you.

She crosses her arms and looks away again. Phillip's eyes widen as he cowers, taking some steps behind Zero. The awkward silence is broken by a loud laugh from Yuja:

- haha this is great! I love working with different people for a change. For those who don't know me, I'm doctor Yuja. I'll be the one taking care of your boo boos, so don't be afraid to come talk to me!

He winks at Phillip, who steps away from Zero and smiles shyly. Max is watching Drake, who is back at messing around with his ship. He steps closer and places a hand on the cold metal of the ship, then shoots a glance at Drake:

- they changed a lot from the last time I saw one.

Drake answers without taking his eyes away from what he is doing:

- yeah, this is one of the newest models. Taking this beauty out in the desert is really just a waste of its potential, in my opinion. Do you know how much gun power this baby has?

He pats the ship and looks at Max, his tongue quickly slithering out of his mouth. Max nods and steps away from the ship. He looks at Zero and then back at Drake:

- say, if the ship is brand new, we don't really need a ship engineer with us, right?

Zero steps closer and answers hurriedly:

- Captain, I'm mostly at the team to oversee the technology we'll be encountering back at your old base. Yes my position is as ship engineer, but that is not primarily why I'm accompanying you all in this mission.

- yeah, you're accompanying us to piss me off. We already have enough robots on this crew.

He says, pointing at his robot, that has been quietly standing by his side all this time. Zero looks at it and chuckles:

- please Captain, you can't be serious! This old model can't offer even half of the assistance that I can. And I'll let you know that I'm not a "robot". After the agreement between our people, it has been established that my species is classified as an Android.

- blah blah blah, no one cares, smart toaster. I said this once and I'll say this again, just for you. I will NOT work with a robot!

Zero sighs exasperated:

- if you wish to complain, do so to the Lieutenant, as it was him who assigned me to this mission.

Max turns his back at them and heads away from the hangar:

- will do. See you guys later.

S O O N