Chapter 88 - 88

Words : 1582 Updated : Sep 12th, 2025

"Have you completed my repairs?" The Robobrain asked as Adam booted it back up. "No." Adam said as he plugged his pip-boy into the hookups in the back of the robot. "Then may I ask why I have been reactivated?" It asked, still almost pleasant in its tone. "Because I want to check your programming first, I need to make sure you haven't had any degradation in your integrated neural pathways." He said as he began to tinker around inside the coding. "It's my first time working on a model like yours so familiarizing myself with you needs to come first." "I understand." It responded as it kept still for Adam. "May I ask if you have reported to the colonel yet?" "... yes." Adam said hesitantly, not exactly sure how to respond to this line of questioning, but after a moment to get his thoughts in order he continued. "I spoke to the colonel, he has relinquished the command of the remains of the unit to me, the highest ranking NCO here. That includes you." "It will be a pleasure to work for you sir!" It responded happily. "Though I am sad to no longer be under the Colonel's charge, he has not given me a single order for almost 210 years, perhaps he has grown tired of me." "I do not believe that is the case..." Adam said gently, still working to understand how this code was even set out, it was much different than other robots. So many of the personality subroutines were just straight up missing and much of the command routines were completely relegated to the brain. The only thing that truly was in the programming was instructions on how to function as well as the rules the unit must follow, such as listening to the orders of its superior officer, or not to fire on friendly soldiers. But a lot of faith was being placed in the human brain to function independently. He couldn't tell if this was foolhardy or genius, but considering it had not been able to tell the soldiers remaining in the brewery had been dead for over 200 years he suspected the former. It did not fill him with confidence. But as Salvatore said, any advantage was one worth taking. He was able to converse with it and convince it to follow his orders, perhaps that would be enough to trust. However, just in case he would add some extra code to ensure that under no circumstance would it go rogue. A verbal shutdown switch could be installed just in case as well as a few other system checks to keep it all tidy. Last thing he wanted was for the robobrain to go rogue. "He told me that you served with distinction." Adam added after a few moments to focus on his work. "He regrets that he cannot award you with a medal at this time however your service to the United States of America has been noticed and appreciated." "That fills me with much joy!" It chimes happily. "I am glad to have made my commanding officer happy!" Adam chuckled a bit, finding the way it spoke and the way it interacted with the world almost endearing. If it wasn't a brain in a jar on a robot he might even call it cute. "However, the colonel has regrettably passed away now." Adam continued deciding to finally clear up the misunderstanding that had continued for 200 years. "As such I have given him an impromptu burial along with all the other soldiers of your unit who… stayed behind." He said, choosing his words carefully. "That is sad. I had thought we were all great friends. But I suppose humans do die eventually, don't they?" "Yeah… that's right…" Adam said slowly as he finished the coding, which was far simpler than he expected due to most of the important stuff being hardwired from the human brain. He unhooked himself from the robot and took a step back. "I'm going to begin repairs on you now, I can not say with certainty that you will be back to full condition but I promise to do the absolute best I can with the tools I have on hand. Though I may ask for some information on your hardware as I work to figure out how best to repair you." "No problem sir, it would be my pleasure to assist you in your work!" Adam began to repair the robot, effectively undoing all the damage he had done earlier, it was the ultimate irony, like breaking a sandcastle someone made only to realize you yourself now had to rebuild it. Regardless of the irony of the situation, there truly was no way to avoid the damage he had dealt, it was inevitable given the situation. Though, perhaps other robobrains might be amenable to dialogue if he were to mention his rank in the military. Though it would still be a huge risk to walk up to a rogue robot and try to talk, so perhaps airing on the safe side was the better choice anyway. Regardless, with the robobrain's help he managed to fix it up to enough of a degree it could be called 'functional' again. The treads were both fixed to satisfaction, the left arm, the one he had stabbed, was capable of moving and firing its laser emitter again, but the right arm was faulty. He had done too much damage with his 10mm for him to be able to fix the arm completely with just the tools on hand. It could be fixed, that was the good news, but in the meantime the right arm would be locked to certain positions and could not charge up the laser emitter nearly as fast. But it worked enough to be usable, that much was a blessing. "Thank you for fixing me sir." The robobrain said happily as it spun in circles after it had finished its last test. "No problem, I'm happy I was able to repair you." Adam smiled softly. "I am sorry we got off to a rocky start, but I do hope we manage to bloom our friendship further from this point forward, sir. I look forward to receiving your orders!" Adam chuckled softly. "Well, for the moment, my only standing order is to continue doing what you have been doing for the past 200 years, protect this building from any unwanted intruders. I will be designating this place as a safe house. There may come a time when I bring people other than myself and my companion that walked by a few times. If someone comes with me they are to be considered friendly until proven otherwise. Or if they say the passcode…" Adam paused a moment to think through some random passcode that could work well. "American Revenger." Adam finished after a few moments to consider, choosing a bad R-Rated action movie sequel he had seen back in the day. But it was the first thing that came to mind and there was no way in hell anyone would ever think to randomly name drop it. If people even remembered the movie. "I understand!" It chimed happily. "I have received my orders and will resume my patrols!" "Ah, one other thing." Adam said before the robobrain rolled away. 'Yes? What is it sir?" "The sentry bot did not survive the encounter, as such it is merely a husk sitting in the main lobby. As an additional task I would like you to disassemble the sentry bot for future processing." "Oh, I am sad to hear that Mr. Sentry has died, he has been my most talkative friend for the past 200 years, but I shall carry out my orders faithfully sir." The robobrain did a military salute and then finally rolled out of the room heading to do patrols as well as likely begin the slow process of taking the sentry bot apart. If Adam was lucky, enough of the internals survived for it to be salvageable but he had no way of knowing and doing it by hand would take too long. Adam checked his pip-boy clock and saw that it was already past midnight. He had spent literally all day from the moment he got here making this place usable again. It was worth it, but now that he had finished he had realized how dreadfully exhausted he was. He needed to sleep, tomorrow they were heading back to the city and he could finally get better armor and, more importantly, prepare to make the trek to Second Life HQ, the primary reason he went to Midway in the first place. He was starting to feel impatient, but he was keeping it in, for now. "You done tinkering kid?" Salvatore said, as he sat on one of the officer's beds on the second floor while Adam came up the stairs looking beat. "Yeah, finally." Salvatore chuckled. "Well luckily we don't have a deadline, this place is safe and you found those MREs. We don't need to rush out the door tomorrow so sleep in if you gotta." He grinned. "Good." Adam said as he threw himself onto a different bed. "Goodnight Salvatore." Adam said, his face buried into the pillow of the bed. Salvatore let off a soft single chuckle as he put out his cigarette in an ashtray. "Goodnight, kid."

Chapter 88 - 88

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