Chapter 86 - 86

Words : 1647 Updated : Sep 12th, 2025

Before he did anything Adam had to address the elephant in the room... "Pardon me, do you mind letting me kill you? If you were to place your hand inside my chassis and grab hold of my wires you would receive electrical voltage enough to die. I would be much obliged if you would kindly do so." The still active and yet completely immobile Robobrain said as he re-entered the room where he left it. Adam sighed as he walked over to the robot. "No, I don't have any intentions of letting you kill me." "Oh. That is a shame. I would ask you kindly reconsider my request." The Robobrain persisted, still upbeat as always. Adam was left uncertain what to do. He had an affinity for robots, he liked them to be blunt, but this… thing… was unlike anything he had ever seen before. To be frank it was creepy. However it was perhaps more alive than any other robot he'd ever encountered. And if the military was using them after he had finished his tour they must have been capable support units which would mean it would be useful to keep around. But he wasn't even sure where to begin even if he did want to keep it around. Reprogramming a robot is one thing, can you even reprogram a brain? It must have been somewhat doable since the US Army did it in the first place, the question was how? "Have you considered my request?" The Robobrain asked politely, breaking Adam out of his thoughts. "I have, and the answer remains the same. Request denied." Adam said back sternly. "Oh, I see." The robot said with a tiny bit of dejection. "Then perhaps you would be willing to return me to my designated unit? It seems many of my systems have been damaged. I wish to have them repaired. I also need orders from my Commanding Officer." Adam raised an eyebrow, an idea forming in his head. "I am Sergeant Baxter, 33rd Infantry Division, I regret to inform you that your previous unit is dead." Adam tried saying, figuring that if it was looking for a military command structure, he might be able to insert himself into that role. "Scanning database." The robobrain said a moment later as it beeped and whirled inside seeming to check a rolodex of information. "Confirmed, Adam Baxter, Sergeant, 33rd Infantry Division, recipient of the Silver Star, Arctic Cross, Good Conduct Medal, Legion of Merit, and other awards of distinction. You are indeed not lying." By the sound of it the Robobrain was satisfied and had recognized him as a service member. "May I ask what you are doing here in the provisional headquarters of the 11th Company, Sergeant?" The Robobrain asked, as if it had not tried to kill Adam not even 10 minutes ago. "I was… looking for a military compound to link up with other units." "I see. I am sorry to say that other than the Colonel, two privates, and a staff sergeant, all other members of the 11 company have already vacated the premises, as such there is nothing we can offer you here." Adam had to pause when the robobrain began to say who was still here. Was there still somehow survivors that managed to stay alive this whole time? Was there actually still people to meet up with here? Then it hit him. The ranking on the uniforms of those two skeletons outside were both that of privates, which means the robobrain had mistaken the skeletons as active duty personnel… which did not bode well for the other two, in all likelihood they were in a similar state. "I… see…" Adam said hesitantly as he processed the information. "I will report to the colonel soon, but first I am not familiar with your model of robot, I wish to run diagnostics on you and handle the repairs to your unit myself, how do I access your central processing core?" "The central processing core of this unit is the brain you can see suspended in the liquid jelly above. However if you are looking for the diagnostic and program controls the back panel will allow you access to my computer core hookups." "Wonderful." Adam said as he began to walk around to the back of the Robobrain to open the panel as instructed. "Your service record does not indicate you have the proper qualifications to repair this automated unit, I would suggest requesting proper qualified engineers from HQ." "I understand, but unfortunately HQ is out of contact, there is no support coming, it's either me or you remain inoperative." Adam said as he began to dig through the back of the robobrain to see what he was working with. The Robobrain was suspiciously silent for almost an entire minute while Adam rooted around in the back before speaking up. "I understand. Under the circumstances it seems most prudent you be the one to fix this unit." Adam chuckled at getting permission. "Don't worry, I learned a few things outside the army, fixing robots…" He said as he found what he needed, the access port, plugging his pip-boy in. "Is one of them…" He finished as he activated a shutdown sequence on the Robobrain, the robobrain then slumped over while remaining upright and the light glow coming from the cranial fluid stopped. Adam sighed deeply as he looked at the now deactivated Robobrain. He still had to decide what he was going to do. In fact he still had a lot of work to do even outside of this. "Who knew you were so decorated." Salvatore said, chuckling, as he came down the stairway smoking, clearly having heard at least part of the conversation. "Got a lot of medals don't you?" "It was war, everybody and their mother got medals." Adam said dismissively as he walked over to the computer. "If you could have convinced it you were still in the army you should have just done that instead of breaking it." Salvatore said with a shrug as he stopped in front of the deactivated Robobrain just looking at it. "Yeah well, I didn't exactly have time to have a chat with it while it was trying to kill me earlier." Adam said as he booted up the computer again and began the long process of reprogramming the Turrets. The issue with turret programming instead of robots is they lacked the intelligence for Adam's quick trick to work. There was no way to simply have them recognize a voiced keyword like he had done with other robots in the past. With turrets they only had the ability to see. Which meant he did have to go through the tedious and painful process of identifying himself to the computer so he would not be fired upon. Then do the same for Salvatore. Then, as an added precaution, just to be thorough, he wanted to add a way for him to safely and easily exclude people who he would bring with him in the future here from being shot at too. None of it was particularly hard to program, it was just tedious, the worst kind of programming. Salvatore stared at the Robobrain for a few more moments before he pulled Adam's Rifle out from the treads, finding it to be slightly bent, as expected. "I think you are going to need a new rifle." He said, handing it over to Adam. Adam looked up from the computer and at the rifle and sighed. "I guess you are right." He said putting it down on the table next to him, deciding to worry about it later. "What are you going to do with this thing anyway? Scrap it for parts? You went through that whole song and dance to convince it you were with the US Army just to deactivate it." "I… Don't know…" Adam admitted softly. Salvatore remained silent for a moment as he quietly smoked in the corner of the room before speaking up again. "Can you fix it?" Adam paused what he was doing and looked over at Salvatore. "I mean… probably but…" He paused as he looked at the brain. "Something about it just feels… immoral." "Kid." Salvatore pulled himself off the wall and looked into Adam's eyes. "Out here, you got to take any advantage you have, you are right, turning this place into a safehouse is a good idea if you got the skills to do it, which you do." He then gestured to the Robobrain as he continued. "And I promise ya this thing will be helpful in keeping this place safe. Besides, it's just a robot, even if it has a brain." He shrugs. "Don't be so squeamish. Whoever's brain it was is dead, now it belongs to a robot, that's all there is to it, you can't be backing down for such reasons, otherwise you will never be able to handle the things out here." Adam let out a long and heavy sigh. Salvatore was right, he knew that, but he had held himself back due to his old world values. Once more he was reminded he needed to adapt, It was time to throw such concerns away. "Alright…you are right." He said after a long pause to get his thoughts in order. "But that just adds more on my list of things to do, so I'm going to be working late into the night." "Do what you gotta do, kid." Salvatore said as he walked up to Adam patted his shoulder and then started to walk past back onto the brewery main floor. "I'm going to do a patrol around the area, make sure there are no more surprises, you need me I'll be close by."

Chapter 86 - 86

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