Robots Undisguised (Rewritten)
Robots Undisguised
Blake shivered. “Rainbow Dash?”
“Yeah?” Rainbow’s voice came over her earpiece. She was somewhere nearby, hidden, watching her, but Blake couldn’t see her, just like she couldn’t see Weiss or Flash either. She could only hear Rainbow’s voice, speaking to her from out of Rainbow’s hiding place.
Blake shivered again. “Is it me, or is it much colder down here than it was in Atlas?”
Rainbow’s laughter had an edge of nervousness to it. “It’s not just you, Blake, sorry. There is a heating grid — that’s why you won’t, you know, die — but it’s not enough to really warm the place up like Atlas.”
Blake huffed. “I suppose I shouldn’t be too surprised,” she muttered.
“It’s another reason why it would be great if everyone could move out of here and come to live in Atlas,” Rainbow said. “There’s just … there’s too much work to be done to make this a decent place to live.”
“I know what you mean,” Blake said quietly.
Night had fallen over Atlas and LowTown alike, and Blake was waiting in a narrow alley between two rising ramshackle apartment blocks at the very edge of Low Town, not far from the flattened patch of earth that they theorised was being used as the landing site for airships abducting faunus.
The plan that Dash had come up with was a simple one, but no less good to Blake’s mind for being simple. It was a variation on the tactics they had already used to beat Torchwick and the White Fang, and it had worked perfectly well then against opponents who could think for themselves: they would stake out the landing site, and when — if — an airship landed, then Blake would pretend to be an innocent faunus girl walking home at night. The hope was that such a target in such proximity would entice the kidnappers, who would then be set upon by the combined strength of their party with the aim of disabling one of the androids and getting Twilight to examine it for more information.
To be honest, if it hadn’t been for the uncommonly cold weather, Blake wouldn’t have minded either the plan or her part in it, but it was cold, so she minded a little.
She heard someone coming, footsteps from behind her; Blake spun around, reaching for Gambol Shroud — it was concealed beneath her coat and worn a little lower on her back than normal, but she could still reach it over her shoulder — before she saw that it was Weiss.
“In some ways, I think I should be the one who’s afraid of you,” Weiss observed.
Blake lowered her hand. “You startled me.”
“Sorry,” Weiss said, as she walked closer. She had a flask in her hand, which she held out towards Blake as she approached. “I thought I could help with the cold.”
“Coffee?”
“Tea,” Weiss corrected. “Is that a problem?”
“No, it’s better,” Blake said. “When did you get that?”
“I’ve been carrying it all day,” Weiss said, as she unscrewed the top of the metal flask and poured some steaming liquid into it. “It has a dust-powered heater that keeps it warm; you could say it’s a portable kettle. Here.”
Blake took the lid-turned-cup out of Weiss’ hands. It was warm to her touch, warm verging upon hot, and that was such a satisfying feeling to her fingers and her palms that had become to ache and throb from the cold. She stood, shivering, feeling the heat on her skin for a moment or two before she started to sip. The tea was a little sweeter than she personally preferred, but she wasn’t about to quibble with Weiss at a time like this. “It’s great, thank you.”
Weiss unscrewed the bottom of the flask, which turned out to be a second cup which she poured for herself. “You’re welcome. My butler does make an excellent cup of tea.”
Blake’s eyebrows rose.
“Don’t look at me like that,” Weiss said, with a touch of good-natured irritation. “I refuse to believe that the daughter of the ruler of Menagerie has never been waited on in her life before.”
“It’s not as grand as you might think,” Blake replied, because it was easier to just say that than to try and explain that she’d run away from her parents before her father became ruler of Menagerie. Besides, as it happened, Weiss was right: she had been waited on, when she had sat at the left hand of Sienna Khan as her honoured guest — Sienna had made much of Blake in the early days, had played the mother to her in Blake’s own mother’s absence; now, Blake was inclined to believe that she had wanted to rub it in the faces of her parents — and at the warlord’s table, she had been treated as a princess of the White Fang in ways that she had never been when her father was leader; and in Vale, when she had been with Adam … it sometimes struck her as strange some of the ways that the White Fang had, by accident or through deliberate imitation, ended up mimicking the Atlesian military to which it was implacably opposed: Adam didn’t dine with the common rabble, but only with his trusted lieutenants and Blake, and the lowly task of preparing his own meals had been beneath the great liberator’s dignity; he had had Strongheart or one of the other young faunus take care of it. So …Weiss had a point. “But … you’re not wrong about the servants thing.” I still knew how to make my own tea.
“It’s nothing to be ashamed of, I might tell you,” Weiss declared. “Take … take Missus Seacole, my old nanny; is she happier living … living down here, trying to raise her granddaughters on … I don’t even know what? Meagre savings, a small pension maybe, or was she better off getting a wage as an employee of my grandfather? If you are fortunate enough to have wealth, it strikes me that there are much worse ways to use it than to give employment to those who are not so fortunate. Yes, androids can do the dusting and the ironing and make the beds, and maybe they can even be programmed to cook, but … I don’t see that being unemployed is an improvement on being a servant.”
That assumes that some people should have so much more money than others, Blake thought. Not everyone would agree … but then who would expect the heiress to the Schnee Dust Company to find the concept of monstrous wealth to be abhorrent.
If the limits of her imagination were using her wealth for good, then who could honestly blame her?
“In my case, it’s a little different,” Blake said. “But I take your point.” She paused for a moment. “Why would you be afraid of me?”
“You are a former member of the White Fang, after all,” Weiss pointed out. “I’m not sure that my father would approve of this, if he knew.”
“The fact that he doesn’t know suggests you don’t really care whether he approves or not,” Blake pointed out.
“True,” Weiss said with a slight chuckle. “It was … a bad joke, I suppose.”
“Heads up, everybody,” Rainbow’s voice came over the com device in Blake’s ear. “I just got word from air traffic control; there’s a Bullhead incoming, looks like it's on approach to this location.”
“Do they know whose Bullhead it is?” Flash asked.
“Nah, they just told me it’s a registered civilian ID,” Rainbow said. “I can ask for the details, but the airship will probably get here before they respond. Blake, are you ready?”
“Almost,” Blake murmured, taking a healthy gulp from her cup of tea.
Weiss sipped thoughtfully from hers. “You know what’s bothering me about this?”
“No.”
“That woman who saw green eyes … she said they were looming over her, but no robot is that big. Combat androids are the size of people.”
“Military models are, but this could be a private design,” Blake suggested.
“Have you ever heard of a private design that much taller than a person?”
“No,” Blake admitted. “But I suppose we’ll find out soon enough.”
“Eyes up; here it comes,” Rainbow said, as the whine of a Bullhead’s engines disturbed the quiet of the night. “Blake, you set?”
Blake drained the last of her cup of tea in one gulp. “I am now.”
“Then you’re on.”
Blake handed Weiss her cup back. “Thanks for the tea.”
“Don’t mention it,” Weiss said, screwing the lid back on her flask. “Good luck. I’m right behind you.”
Blake nodded as she slouched out of the alleyway and just beyond the informal boundaries of Low Town. Once outside, with her feline night vision, she could see the Bullhead descending as plain as day.
It was unpainted and unmarked, much like the ones that White Fang occasionally used — when they could get their hands on them — in an attempt at stealth through lack of identifiers. The White Fang would never prey upon their own people in this way, but the similarity didn’t reassure Blake that whoever was landing here didn’t have a nefarious purpose in mind. A container unit, as grey and unmarked as the Bullhead itself, was attached to the bottom of the airship.
There were no lights on the airship, either inside the cockpit — it was completely dark, from what Blake could see — or outside in terms of landing lights or the like. It looked like Rainbow was right: everything was entirely automated.
That might be a good thing: a human — or faunus — might have recognised that she didn’t exactly look like the sort of person who belonged in Low Town.
She continued to watch the airship as it descended vertically upon the empty plot of land; if anyone was watching her in turn, she hoped they wouldn’t think it strange that the landing of an airship in the middle of the night in a place like this was attracting attention from a lonely girl walking home at night. It was only when the Bullhead had completed its landing and cut its engines that Blake turned away and began to walk — more like a slouch — slowly around the edge of town, playing the part of a tired girl making her way home after an exhausting day at work.
“You should have been in drama club,” Rainbow said.
“Where I grew up we didn’t have drama club,” Blake replied.
“Can everybody see Blake?”
“Yes,” said Weiss.
“I see her,” Flash added.
Blake didn’t look at the airship as she heard the central compartment open up, the door opening with a whine. She heard a heavy thump upon the ground, and she glanced out of the corner of her eye and then had to stop and look as one of the biggest robots that she’d ever seen, having dropped out of the Bullhead and onto the ground, rose up to its full height.
“What the … what is that thing?” she heard Rainbow ask in her ear.
Blake didn’t answer. Nobody answered because nobody knew.
The best that could be said for the android that now stomped its way towards her was that it wasn’t the size of an Atlesian paladin, but that didn’t matter too much because it still dwarfed any humanoid battle droid that Blake had ever encountered. It put Blake herself — or anyone else she knew apart from her father — in the shade. Although it was modelled after a man, it was the size of an ursa; Blake doubted she’d come past its waist, if that. The android’s body was as red as blood, with broad shoulders and a heavy torso, although its legs looked a little thin by comparison; it carried a double-bladed polearm in one hand, and the blades of the weapon glowed blue even as its green eyes, fixed on Blake, burned brightly in the darkness; she could see a large white M upon its belly.
The android made its way straight towards Blake, unflinching and unhesitating, the green eyes and green lines glowing in the dark.
Blake didn’t move as it bore down upon her. She felt it wasn’t unnatural that anyone in this position would be frozen in fear at the sight.
She could understand why someone might freeze at this sight — and she didn’t mind admitting in the privacy of her head that she wished Pyrrha were here to take care of it with her semblance — but anger and the accompanying fire stoked in her prevented Blake from freezing.
So they had been right: someone was sending out their androids to snatch faunus off the streets of Low Town. Why? What gave them the right? Did they think that, because these people were faunus, that meant they didn’t matter? That they could do what they liked and nobody would notice, or care if they did notice?
It only needed someone to show up and care.
Well she was here now, and she cared, and Rainbow cared, and she thought that even Weiss cared — probably Flash cared too, although she didn’t know him well enough to comment for sure. They were all here, and they all had Blake’s back, and they were going to show whoever was behind this that they had made a big mistake.
The robot continued to advance.
“Do we go now?” Flash asked.
“Not yet,” Rainbow said.
The android bore down on Blake; soon, it would be close enough to touch her.
“Now?” demanded Weiss.
“Not yet,” Rainbow said.
The now-closer droid raised its free hand and reached for Blake’s head.
“We have to move,” urged Weiss.
“Not yet,” Rainbow said insistently.
Blake stood still, seeming paralysed with fear, as the red hand of the droid, the hand that was as large as her face, closed with her head, metallic fingers closing around it.
Or rather, around the swiftly-dissolving shadow where Blake had been a moment ago.
Blake leapt up into the air, drawing Gambol Shroud across her shoulder. She seemed to hang in the air for a moment as her weapon arranged itself into pistol configuration; she snapped off a trio of shots that struck the green-eyed android in the face.
The shots ricocheted off the crimson android’s head, and as a string of unintelligible robotic sounds emanated from the creation, Blake could swear that it looked at her with greater malice than before.
“Now!” Rainbow yelled. “Save the head, okay; we need to preserve the head so Twi can hack it!”
The android slashed at Blake as she descended from her leap, its glaive leaving a blue trail in the air so swiftly did it move; too swiftly for Blake, and she was in the wrong place to leave another clone to take the hit in her place; the halberd caught her in the waist, sending her flying backwards down the nearest Low Town street to land on her back. She could feel her aura dropping from the blow and the subsequent impact, and she could feel her back and stomach aching as she leapt to her feet.
The android advanced towards her, slow but implacable.
Rainbow’s jetpack left a trail as she streaked through the air, kicking the android in the face as she flew past. It didn’t seem to faze the robot much — as far as she could tell with an android, anyway — but it seemed to get its attention.
Or perhaps that was just the way that Rainbow landed on top of the android’s polearm, balancing precariously on the pole like a gymnast as she unloaded her shotgun into the android’s chest.
Unfailing Loyalty roared once, twice, three times, four times as the buckshot hit the armour plating of the android with a clatter and a rattle like pebbles bouncing off a window. The crimson armour of the robot’s chest suffered microscopic little dents, but the robot itself stood stoic and enduring of these blows until it flicked its glaive upwards to send Rainbow flying off. The robot turned, tracking Rainbow’s movements as she soared through the night sky, before it was interrupted by a blue shot striking it from behind.
Weiss erupted out of the alleyway where Blake had left her, gliding across a line of speed glyphs with all the grace of a figure skater, her rapier drawn back and her free hand outstretched before her in some kind of formal fencing posture. She darted around the android, dodging the wide swing of its blade, and as she glided around the robot — it seemed so cumbersome in comparison to her lithe agility — she flicked her Myrtenaster outwards, and both the robot’s feet were encased in the ice that arose spikily out of the ground at Weiss’ command.
Blake dashed forward, Gambol Shroud reforming into a sword at her impulse as she charged right for the immobilised robot. It glared at her, or seemed to glare, as it wound up its halberd for a thrust into her chest.
Blake smirked and wondered if the robot understood what that meant.
The android thrust its polearm forward in a series of long, powerful blows that struck the ice clone Blake had left behind her. The real Blake rolled out of the way, getting to her feet in time to see the robot’s glowing weapon encased in ice and as trapped as its feet.
Flash, who lacked the speed of either Weiss or Rainbow, joined them as the android tugged impotently upon its imprisoned weapon.
“Nice going, Blake,” Rainbow said as she landed on top of the android’s shoulders.
“Ahem,” Weiss coughed into her hand.
Rainbow ignored her as she crouched down and placed her hands on either side of the android’s head.
“Okay,” she said. “Let’s get this—”
She was interrupted by a flurry of fire from the direction of the Bullhead, which struck her on the back and tore her away, off the android’s shoulders, sending her flying headfirst to the ground.
Another android unfolded itself as it jumped down from the Bullhead. This one was white, as tall as the first but even broader in the body; the M upon its chest was crimson, and its eyes glowed red and seemingly full of wrath as it aimed the giant weapon it was holding in both hands at the young huntsmen.
Bullets sprayed from the heavy machine gun in its hands, erupting from the single barrel as the android loosed its fire upon them. Blake took cover behind an earth clone, hearing the rock chip and crack under the onslaught. Flash threw himself in front of Weiss and held his shield in front of himself; his semblance, Stalwart, enabled him to absorb the force of blows that would have knocked another man aside, and he used it now to absorb the hail of fire that rattled off his shield, weathering it like a great oak standing before the storm.
And then the red android tore its halberd out of the ice and began to use it to hack away at the ice restraining its feet. Blake shot at it, but it hardly seemed to notice or, if it noticed, didn’t care.
The white android ceased to fire and seemed to study the group for a moment. A green pebble, or something that looked like one, flew out of the cannon’s mouth to bounce along the ground before landing at Flash’s feet.
“Gren—” Rainbow’s shout was cut off as the grenade exploded under and in front of Flash Sentry, knocking him up and backwards with an anguished cry of pain.
“Flash!” Weiss cried as Flash’s aura shattered visibly in front of them, a golden light rippling over his body as his inner light faded.
Weiss conjured a white glyph to catch him gently before he hit the ground, while another glyph formed in front of him to shield him from fire.
“Get the head off the red one,” Rainbow yelled, a rainbow streaking behind her as she charged towards the white android with the gun. “I’ll take care of the other.”
The red android had succeeded in freeing its legs from the ice, but Weiss faced it now with eyes like ice, betokening a fury as chill as the Atlesian winter
Red dust, as red as the robot itself, cycled into Myrtenaster’s chamber as a line of flame ran across the ground between Weiss and the android, erupting into an explosion at its feet which staggered the robot even as it did not immobilise it. The android rounded on her, but Weiss attacked first, her rapier shining as she thrust it forward in a flurry of blows that made the android cower behind its arms, shielding itself as Myrtenaster glanced off its armour plates again and again.
The android swept both its arms outwards, knocking Weiss backward a pace, before hitting her with its own flurry of thrusting strokes that sent her flying through the air. For a moment, Weiss seemed to hang suspended, her rapier glowing yellow, and in that moment of suspension, she fired something, a yellow blast, from the tip of her blade at Blake, and then the moment passed, and the glaive struck her and knocked her backwards to the ground.
The glowing yellow shot which Weiss had fired hit the ground at Blake’s feet, forming into a glyph in the shape of many grinding gears, turning like the inner workings of a clock.
The world around Blake seemed to slow. She could see the red android advancing on Weiss, she could see Rainbow charging the white android, fist cocked back, but they were all moving so, so slowly. Rainbow Dash was the only one who seemed to be running at anything like normal speed, but she should have been moving so fast that Blake couldn’t make her out. And the red android was moving so slowly it was barely moving at all.
Blake attacked. She charged the robot, hitting it from all sides and all directions. Gambol Shroud struck from everywhere as Blake hacked at her target’s legs, its arms, its weapons. She rained down blows upon it from all sides, breaking the glaive in two and slashing through one of its legs at the knee. The effect of whatever exactly it was that Weiss had done to Blake wore off, but it hardly seemed to matter as the android fell forwards to hit the ground with a thud.
It tried to rise, onto its knees at least, but Weiss was already standing over it, and at her feet glowed a white glyph, and around her rapier, an enormous broadsword made of ice had formed. And as the red android raised its head and began to push itself up, she swung that sword and lopped off its head in a single stroke.
The decapitated robot hit the ground with a final thump.
A booming sound from the direction of the Bullhead drew the attention of Blake and Weiss in time to see Rainbow punch the head clean off the white android using that aura-boom of hers. Personally, Blake thought that draining your own aura to such an extent was incredibly rash in a fight, but it seemed to have worked in this case as the head flew into the bullhead and the white android crumpled to the ground.
And then the Bullhead itself exploded. Rainbow Dash was framed against the explosion as the dark aircraft erupted into light, before both she and the body of the white android — minus the head — were thrown backwards, skidding along the derelict plot that served as a landing pad before the android’s body landed on top of Rainbow Dash, who groaned.
“Rainbow!” Blake cried, as she dashed through the still-open wire gate and across the barren ground towards her. “Are you okay?”
Rainbow groaned as she pushed the android off her. “I think my aura just broke, but so long as there aren’t any more robots around, I’ll be fine.” She rubbed at her right shoulder with her left hand as she got to her feet. “Did you get the head?”
Weiss picked up the head of the red android. “Present and accounted for.”
“And Flash?” Rainbow asked.
Weiss walked quickly across the ground to where Flash still lay upon the white glyph. “Unconscious, but I can’t see any injuries.”
“I’ll call in a medevac for him,” Rainbow said. “Was it just me, or did those androids seem tougher than ours?”
“It wasn’t just you,” Blake said. She frowned. “And we’re still no closer to finding the missing.”
“I wouldn’t say that,” Rainbow replied. “Once we get the head to Twilight, I’ve got a feeling it’s going to give us everything we need.”
The door into the lab slid open, admitting Weiss and a slightly bruised and battered-looking Flash Sentry. He was out of his armour now and wearing a jacket over a T-shirt and jeans. He smiled sheepishly at all those who were already in the room.
“Hey, guys,” he said. “I hope I didn’t keep everyone waiting.”
“It’s cool,” Rainbow said. “You deserve to be here when we find out what it’s all about. How do you feel?”
“My aura broke, but it stopped me taking any real injuries first,” Flash said. “That, or my armour took the worst of it. I’ll be okay.”
“I still don’t think that a single grenade should have been able to break your aura like that,” Weiss said. “That seems far too powerful.”
Rainbow nodded. “Your aura’s never seemed that weak before.”
Flash looked even more embarrassed. “What can I say? It happened.”
He and Weiss joined the others. The bodies of the two androids that they had fought down at the landing sight had been dismantled into their component parts — torso, arms, legs — and most of said parts had, with the exception of the head of the red android, been placed under some kind of scanner. Twilight had explained what the scanner was called — something to do with determining the component elements and analysing the design — but Blake couldn’t remember the exact words.
Twilight sat at a desk, her back to the scanners, with the other huntsmen gathered around her. The head of the red android sat on the desk not far away, as did a pair of computers, of which Twilight was only using one at the moment. She turned her chair around and ran her bespectacled eyes across the gathering.
“Well, I’m afraid it’s not the best news,” she said, sounding a trifle nervous.
Rainbow placed a hand on her shoulder. “What’s up, Twi?”
Twilight winced. “These androids don’t match anything on the database when it comes to commercial models; not only are they not military, they’re not even on sale.”
Rainbow frowned. “You’re saying that somebody built these in their garage? Come on, Twilight, the only person I know who could do that is, well, you.”
“I wouldn’t count Moondancer out either,” Twilight said. She paused. “I’m not suggesting that Moondancer’s a suspect, by the way.”
“Don’t worry, I got that,” Rainbow reassured her.
“Are all customised androids so tough?” Blake asked.
“Quite the opposite,” Twilight said. “Most hand-built androids are inferior to the mass-produced models — as you’d hope, really. But I didn’t say that these were hand-built; on the contrary, they show no evidence of hand-crafting and appear to be production line models.”
“But you said—” Rainbow began.
“I said they weren’t on sale, at the moment,” Twilight said. “But they do bear some resemblance to the Merlot Industries Guardian and Suppressor Androids that were briefly on sale about twenty years ago.” She tapped some of the keys on the left-hand computer, and a pair of photographs appeared on the large monitor that took up most of the wall in front of them. At first, the photographs appeared to Blake to be the androids that they had fought that night. After a moment’s more careful study, she realised that they were not actually the same androids, though they were clearly related, but the two androids in the pictures were less heavily armoured, with more of their inner workings exposed to the world; they were also slightly smaller, and overall less sophisticated-looking, with the so-called Suppressor having a simpler-looking rotary cannon and the Guardian having only a single-bladed spear; it was like comparing the AK-130 to the AK-200: they were the same but also different.
Or like comparing someone to a picture of when they were a child.
“They’re more advanced now,” Blake said.
Twilight nodded. “What you’ve brought me are a pair of true next-generation androids compared to anything in use at the moment: stronger, more resilient, better armed; I won’t know about intelligence until I hook this one up.” She indicated the severed head on her desk. “But overall, it isn’t looking too good for the Atlesian Knight.”
Rainbow folded her arms. “That’s … not good. We spend millions on R&D, so how did some random guy manage to come up with androids that are so much better than ours?”
“That’s why I don’t think it’s likely that this is just some random guy,” Twilight said. “If it is, they’re a genius. Although…”
“What?” Rainbow asked.
Twilight shrugged. “One of the reasons why the AK-200 represents such an incremental advancement over the 130 is that we don’t need our androids to be that much better. The replacement of on-board weapon systems with hands is the biggest upgrade, and everything else is just slight tweaking for better performance; that’s because our existing androids work for what they’re designed to do: replace low-level infantry on the ground, and with that goal accomplished, we’ve been able to focus our research on other areas, like the Paladin or, well, you know.”
“Know what?” Flash asked.
“You don’t know,” Rainbow informed him.
Flash frowned a little. “Are we allowed to know?”
“No,” Rainbow said flatly.
“Good to know,” Flash remarked with a perfectly straight face.
“It’s classified,” Twilight added apologetically. “Suffice to say … we have been busy, just not on making leaps in combat android capabilities. But these androids … it’s almost as if they were designed to replace huntsmen.”
“Or kill them,” Blake muttered.
“Who’d want to replace huntsmen with robots?” Flash asked.
“As much to the point, why aren’t they on sale anymore?” Weiss added.
“And why have we never bought them?” inquired Rainbow. “I mean, I know that they could never actually replace huntsmen, even if the guy who built them wanted them to, but they’re still better — and look like they were better — than what we’re working with.”
“Yes, but that doesn’t change the fact that they were built in Vale, the home of Merlot Industries,” Twilight said. “Not Atlas.”
Blake frowned. “That sounds … I mean, obviously, I understand what you just said, but I don’t understand the rationale behind it.”
“It’s council policy,” Twilight explained. “Military contracts are only given to Atlesian providers, to boost the economy and ensure that we have our own defence industries in the event of … in the event of….”
“War with the other kingdoms?” Blake suggested.
“It’s mostly the economy thing,” Twilight assured her.
Rainbow folded her arms. “Hard to believe that the Valish were coming up with tech that was so much better than ours.”
Twilight tapped something on her keyboard, and the photographs on the large monitor were replaced by an encyclopaedia entry for Merlot Industries. Blake started to read it, but it seemed that she didn’t have to because Twilight started to summarise the details for them. “Merlot Industries, founded by Doctor Victor Merlot, whose expulsion from Beacon didn’t stop him from getting doctorates in genetics and cybernetic engineering or from setting up a company which he named after himself. He was believed to have great promise and attracted a lot of early investment, but he wasted most of it on a lavish corporate headquarters in Mountain Glenn and on various scientific projects of little commercial value. The mainstay of the company was a line of highly-advanced combat androids, but they struggled to find any buyers. Some said that they were too advanced for the kind of security work that most private androids are employed in, but Doctor Merlot…” Twilight trailed off, with a glance at Weiss.
Weiss pursed her lips together. “If it’s about my father, you can say it. I won’t be offended.”
Twilight cleared her throat. “Doctor Merlot alleged that the Schnee Dust Company was engaging in predatory pricing in order to shut him out of the market, but the Remnant Trade Organisation dismissed his accusations and refused to impose any sanctions on the SDC. The finances of Merlot Industries continued to worsen, but none of that mattered once Mountain Glenn was overrun by the grimm. Doctor Merlot was amongst those declared missing after the disaster along with many of his staff; the remnants of the company ended up sold shortly afterwards.
Blake said, “So this is a company based in Vale, that was going bankrupt even before everyone involved was eaten by the creatures of grimm, and yet somehow, improved versions of their androids — the androids that nobody was buying even when they were available — have shown up in Atlas being used to kidnap faunus?”
“I know it sounds crazy, but that’s what the evidence suggests,” Twilight said. She rolled her chair sideways to the left a little and picked up the head of the red android. “This guy might be able to tell us a little more.” She reached for a cable connected to the computer on her right.
“This isn’t going to be one of those things where you plug that in, and two seconds later, we’ve lost control of Atlas’ air defences, is it?” Rainbow asked.
“That’s why I’m using this computer and not that one,” Twilight, gesturing to the machine she’d been using before. “This one is completely disconnected from any networks.”
“Good, because that would have been an awkward conversation with General Ironwood,” Rainbow said.
Twilight smiled.
The holoprojector sitting beside her other, network-connected, computer, illuminated, projecting a hologram of Midnight — which was to say, Twilight without glasses and her hair down — less than a foot tall.
Nevertheless, she was tall enough that Rainbow could tell that she was pouting, in addition to having folded her arms. She let out a little harrumph.
Twilight rolled her eyes behind her spectacles. “Leaving aside the fact that I am perfectly capable—”
“What is the point of having me around if I don’t get to do stuff like this?” Midnight asked. “I was going to click my fingers and have all the data appear on the screen.”
“That would be very dramatic, I’m sure,” Twilight said dryly. “But the risks—”
“I can do it!”
“Completely disconnecting you from the network is not something that I ever envisaged when I designed you,” Twilight insisted. “I’m not sure that it’s even possible, the way that I coded you—”
“I don’t need to be disconnected; I won’t let anything get past me!”
“I can’t take that risk,” Twilight said. “Not with you and certainly not with the Atlas mainframe.”
“You mean you don’t trust me?”
Twilight hesitated for a moment. “Not with this city.”
Midnight let out another harrumph and ostentatiously turned her back on Twilight. She did not, however, disappear; Rainbow could only interpret that as being because she wanted Twilight to know just how upset she, Midnight, was with her.
“Excuse me,” Weiss murmured. “But who is that?”
“This is Midnight,” Twilight said. “My Virtual Intelligence assistant.”
“When I’m allowed to assist,” Midnight grumbled.
Weiss frowned. “Should a VI be sulking? Or arguing back?”
“I’m very advanced, Miss Schnee,” Midnight declared, turning to face her. “With a range of capabilities which I would gladly demonstrate if I was given the opportunity.”
“That’s enough, Midnight,” Twilight declared, as she hooked up the android’s head to her — safely disconnected — computer.
The green eyes of the android began to faintly glow as Twilight’s monitor — the small one on the desk, not the big one on the wall — began to fill up with green letters running across the screen.
Twilight, the green letters reflecting on her spectacles, leaned forward. “Okay, let’s see what we’ve got here. Merlot Operating System version three-point-five.”
“Could someone have acquired all the Merlot assets after the company went under?” Weiss asked.
“Probably,” Twilight said. “But someone would have to do some digging around to find out who that—” She stopped, her voice turning to a frightened squawk as the green text turned to red upon her screen. “No no no no no!” She began to type furiously, her fingers pounding on the keyboard.
“Twi, what’s going on?” Rainbow asked nervously.
“Let’s just say that if this was a networked computer, the cruisers would be starting to self-destruct right about now,” Twilight said without breaking step in her furious typing. “But it’s okay. It’s …it’s really okay. I can fix this.”
“I would love to assist you, but you’ve made that impossible,” Midnight said with an almost malicious glee in her voice.
“Midnight, you’re not helping,” Rainbow growled. “Twi, is there anything we can do?”
Twilight didn’t look at her. “No, I don’t think so, but that’s fine. It’s all fine. Don’t worry. Nobody panic.”
“Twilight—” Rainbow began.
“Nobody panic.”
“Twi—”
“Nobody—”
“Twi, you’re the only one panicking!” Rainbow said.
“Sorry!” Twilight yelped as she continued to type. “It’s just that I — no, come back here you little — I know that this is important to you and — no, you did not just try to stick me in a dead end, mister — I don’t want to disappoint you because this — I don’t know who you think you are, but after all the trouble my friends went to, there’s no way I’m going to let you win — this might be your only lead, and I did it!” She sagged in her chair as a sigh of relief escaped her. “I got it,” she said as the red text on the screen returned to its earlier and more benevolent green.
Rainbow crouched down by her side as she wrapped an arm round Twilight’s neck and shoulders. “Sure you did; you’re Twilight Sparkle.”
Twilight blushed. “You don’t need to flatter me after I’ve already started helping you out.”
“What does it say?” Blake asked.
Twilight started typing again. “Let’s see … directives … it looks like the same android was used to do all the kidnappings: there are orders here, pre-programmed orders specifying the dates on which it was to board the Bullhead, search parameters, commands to obtain … ugh, they’re referred to as specimens, with specified visual markers to identify what it calls ‘acceptable targets.’”
Blake gritted her teeth. 'Specimens'? 'Acceptable targets'? We’re not animals! We’re people, with families and lives and loved ones!
Why does the world find it so hard to understand that? Why does it find it so hard to look past our ears?
“Let me guess,” Weiss said. “Young people?”
“I’m afraid so,” Twilight said. “As best as that can be conveyed visually, anyway.”
“Does it say why?” Blake demanded. “Does it say who’s doing this?”
Twilight typed silently for a moment. “I’m afraid not. It just specifies that, once the android had acquired a victim, they were to place them in the container and then return to the Bullhead which would then return to base and…”
Blake scowled. “Go on.”
“Convey them to the holding pens pending transportation.”
“'Holding pens'?!” Blake cried. “Does it say where?”
“I’m just looking,” Twilight murmured. “Got it! Location tracking data, here it is!”
The heads of all four young huntsmen pressed close around Twilight’s monitor as a primitive map of Solitas came up on it: there were only two locations marked out: the outskirts of Low Town and a position Blake didn’t recognise on the coast, east of Atlas.
“Where is that?” Rainbow asked.
“That’s … I think that’s Long Isthmus Bay,” Flash said.
All eyes turned to him. “Where?” Weiss asked.
“It’s a natural harbour,” Flash explained. “The navy — the actual ocean navy — used it during the Great War; my mom took me diving out there a few times; there are some old dreadnoughts down there from when they scuttled the fleet; all the crews evacuated so they’re aren’t grave sites, no bodies, nothing to stop you from diving down there to take a look at them. It’s pretty cool.”
“Is there anything there apart from old wrecks?” Blake asked.
“There shouldn’t be,” Flash said. “But if you wanted somewhere to moor a boat, then I guess you could do worse than a natural bay with derelict port facilities where almost nobody ever goes anymore.”
“It seems that’s where this robot came from,” Twilight said.
“Then that’s where we need to go,” Rainbow said. “Thanks, Twi.”
“Can I come too?” Midnight asked.
Weiss blinked rapidly. “When you say ‘come too’—”
“I have already downloaded into an android body and accompanied Team Rosepetal on a field mission!” Midnight declared excitedly. “I can be very useful. I could pilot the airship, since Rainbow Dash is going to have to get out and fight!”
Rainbow cupped her chin with one hand. “You know, that’s not actually a bad idea. We could use a spare pilot. If it’s okay with you, Twilight.”
“Please!” Midnight begged. “Just because you won’t let me help in here doesn’t mean that I won’t be able to help out there.”
“Midnight, just because I … never mind,” Twilight sighed. “Of course. That’s why I gave you the ability to upload into that body in the first place, so that you could go out into the field and support Rainbow and others.”
“Yes!” Midnight cried enthusiastically. “So, when do we leave?”
“Right away,” Blake said.
“As soon as I’ve appraised General Ironwood of our progress,” Rainbow corrected her.
Blake looked — almost glared — at Rainbow Dash. “There are faunus being held in cages right now—”
“And we’ve just found out about that, and confirmed that someone is kidnapping them,” Rainbow said. “I have to pass this up. Not to mention, with no idea what kind of security we’re going to find out at that bay, we could maybe use some assistance.”
She reached out and put a hand on Blake’s shoulder. “We’re going to get them back,” she promised. “We’re going to get them all out of there. But we’re going to do it the right way.” She grinned. “Trust me, these robots aren’t going to know what hit them.”
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So somebody built advanced combat robots to kidnap faunus in order to bring them... somewhere. And the owner/creator of those metal heads has most likely a name starting with the letter ‘M’.
Nope, maybe I forgot, but no name from the show comes to mind.
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Grim Eclipse?
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No one from the show, but there is a game known as RWBY: Grimm Eclipse, where the main villain is one Dr. Merlot, who is notorious for experiments on Grimm that turned them green and caused them to explode when they died.
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Merlot Industries, the likely makers of robots here in the chapter, was an R&D corporation that was leading in AI research and genetics in the game RWBY: Grimm Eclipse. while the Faunus kidnappings didn't happen in the original storyline, it wouldn't surprise me that Faunus are being targeted, likely because of their genetics. well, my current theory anyways. Merlot doesn't seem like the type to kidnap for slave labor; his robots could likely do that.
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I didn’t know that such a thing existed. Thanks for the heads-up.
Missing a scene break/transition here. Really jarring without one.
I feel like this should be two sentences. Split it between "agility" and "she".
Pinkie Pie: "As I suspected! Robots are kidnapping people for evil forces of evil, all led by the nefarious Dr. Merlot! You know, it's amazing how many supervillains have a PhD."
Was actually expecting Blake to go full drama queen with her performance, but melodramatic works as well. Overall, begun again Grimm Eclipse has
Wait so it wasn't an Transformers reference, since well Hasbro? Im kidding, though it would be funny. My 7 year old brain went. OUR WORLDS ARE IN DANGER! Que Transformers Cybertron 2005 opening.
Midnight is starting to come of as a Cortana, which may actually be very fitting considering the unique circumstances of both of those intelligences.
Funny considering that this shift from a Jarvice to Cortana was actually quite evident, but the visual provided this chapter sells it.