The Planet 3.2

3.2 The briefing

I leaned on the far wall next to the doorway. We have stormed in and made out way past the corridors. The plant floor plan did build the corridors for the movement between the sections, and it was the only places where the cables and conduits are arranged on the walls and not on the flooring. And there were the multi colored shaded pipes which were distinguishable; red shades for anything above boiling level, blue for the cooler levels but none had ever figured out the real cold pipes shade. They had insulated it with the rubber cover in blue and red. They were everywhere.

We have rushed through the corridors and made it to the Main Control Section. Like the other sections of the plant, it was warm there too. In the section were the electronic consoles that were lined up on the walls, and in the middle section was an island of more terminal consoles with access points. Above the terminal consoles were the display screens which showed the data imprints of the plant operations. There were no droids there. None was allowed to come in unless it was for maintenance. It was one of the rules in segregating the human and the droids. It was like having your own privy section and you would say it was not my droppings. That was the Main Control Section control parameter for droids. It was also supposed to be clean but in that section, there was a layer of dust. It was everywhere. I guess housekeeping missed the schedule.

“Machete, plug in your unit. I need an override on the controls, and give me visual of the sections.” Commander Duggan barked out the orders. He then moved to take his seating by the display screens. The older man was displaying his leadership to us. He had sat on the best seat with the highback and those crummy massage modes.

Damned! He had to cradle his rifle between his legs; I mean it was disgusting truly. I done it before but it was not my rifle.

Duggan eyes never left the screens. He sat here with his full gear still on his back; the gear back with the spare ammo and explosives while on his waist belt was the hand phaser PH450 on his right and the standard half foot length energy blade tucked on the left side of the thigh. Duggan had one more ordinance we could not afford given the meager payout we He never missed out his antique projectile that fires metal slugs; to be exact it was a twelve gauge sawn off shotgun but in that era, no one knew those models anymore. He stole it off a ancient trader which we encountered. It won’t fire for Duggan forgot to steal the metal projectiles. He carried it to show he was different from us. So did Machete who held the foot long energy blade’ compensating for his lack of length.

Loony egoist we all were.

“John, cover the doorway.” I nodded and held my rifle ready to shoot. From what I had mentioned before I was part droid and human; well mostly droid parts in me. We were named constructs but in our profession, we were added the name mercenary. Like the privy, we needed the private space too. I was from the previous read a construct on the right arm and my lower limbs. With my right arm, I could reach into any system and download the data. Unfortunately, my organic brain was limited so they implanted a backup processor into my spine.

I leaned against the doorway while my left hand palmed the doorway access panel. I had to wipe the layer of dust there. Once I got the dust off I was covered the panel. I was interfacing with it with the sensors built-in on the finger tips. It was the droid part of me that was in sync with the circuitry. I was monitoring the security system files, and with the access I was able to read what happened there. I was the only one with the ability to access the main servers. When they rebuild me, they added in modules inside me that made me a walking electronic server.

“Visuals! Machete, where are my visuals?” Duggan was getting impatience.

“Hold your barking, Commander. I am working here.” Machete was senior enough in battle experience to snap back. “I got it. It’s coming here now. It was the damned dust that hampering my interface.”

The doorway slid opened which took me by surprise. I was so immersed in the system that my guard was down. The droid rolled in, and then stopped before Machete.

“Droid Serial 067 available for duty.” The four upper limbs droid stood there waiting for its command. It was a Technician Grade droid with the marking of Grade III. All the droids are given grading to denote their functions and the highest was Grade I which those droids were few and worked the machinery programs. The battle droids have no grades to their design. They were similar to the battle droids, it was covered in dust.

“It’s a Grade III. They are the ones which response to all emergencies and breakdowns.” Machete smile while pulling himself to a seat. “I need that seat now. Interface in place.”

I did mention that Machete was our droid controller. He had the ability to interface to the droids and take over their controls. He sees what they do and control their movements. He could only interface with one unit at anytime. The switching process will take only seconds but it tires him out.

“Clam it, Machete. Take your own seat. I asked for visuals.” Duggan snapped out and was not sacrificing his own comfortable sea. Machete settled on the low back seat which was plenty around at the consoles.

It was then I hit the codes that brought up data on the screens. Machete was not happy to be singled out by the Commander and the one who knew the system was me. I called up the data before Machete. He was to protest but Duggan had moved on to wipe the dust off the screen on the console before him.

“Peggy, I want you to recon the plant.” Peggy stepped towards the nearby terminal and pulled the cable from her side pack. Apart from her sniping skills, her arms held some nifty interface capability. She pulled the flap off her left forearm and revealed a series of sockets. She plugged in the cable into one of the socket and then it started flashing.

“I am in.” Peggy replied. She was able to interface to the plant cams and scanned every part of the plant. Peggy was designed to access security protocols and initiate defensive moves. Parts of her nerves were integrated to make her a walking weapon specialist. She did display that with the shooting skills.

“Anyone needs me?” Nguyen voiced out from the far wall while he lined out the gear of his own. He was unlike us; he was all fully organic but was psychic to the remaining humanity in all the three of us. He was our healer or the one who will pull us out of the interfaces at times. The more time we interface into the droid parts, we sometimes get carried away or in the terms of Nguyen; “you are going over”. That’s when Nguyen will intercept and pulled the plug. After all, as an organic healer he may empathize with our organic pain. Sadly, that was my own notion. He cared not where he plugged the needle as long as it goes in.

“Clam it, Nguyen. I will call you when needed.” Duggan replied. He was the other fully organic being among us. It was protocol that only a fully organic being could be leader, and Duggan fitted the bill. After all, leaders are expected to hold emotions; that way they could distinguish our mortality. And at times he was our savior on the morality infractions.

Welcome to the construct mercenary squad. I never said that our tasks were easy.