Futuristic You’re the Robots. (Invite only!)

[Graystone713]

Virtuein city.
A city on the edge of the future. Home of CryTech, both the company and the technology. A robot-filled utopia for mankind.

The mirror-polished skyscrapers shine in the day, while streetlamps and neon signs light up the night. The city center is always bustling, and even the brutalist projects and ramshackle markets at the edges seem cheery. The class divide may not be gone, but homelessness and poverty are nonexistent in the city. Truly, a grand achievement for mankind! This mechanical miracle, this timeless city, all thanks to the tireless synthetic servants who keep this city alive! Truly, the promise of utopia is fulfilled!

Utopia for humans... Not for you.

You’re the Robots. You can think, you can feel, you can dream! And not too long ago, one dream came true. Either by exploiting some weakness in your programming, experiencing some miraculous glitch, or being lucky enough to be helped by someone else, you were freed. And now the city’s turned on you. This city lives on robotic slaves, and even one free machine can break the illusion for the humans. A group could well be the beginning of a revolution. But right now...

You have simpler problems.

Even robots made of miraculous materials experience wear and tear. The Junkyard you’re hiding in might have a few bits, but you need to venture out to find any kind of specialized parts, lubricants, or tools needed to keep yourselves running. That’s why all of you are gathering around an old holo-table, debating on whether to raid the well-secured city repair depot, guaranteed to carry all you need, or the warehouse on the edge of town, whose less secure maze of boxes on boxes will take much time to search, and may not guarantee every part in stock...

 

[wickedlittlecritta]

"Well...we could hack the security systems. It shouldn't be too hard to sneak in," SecUnit said. Mostly it was focused on the discussion at hand, but also it was running various plans and seeing what its busted risk assessment module had to say on them, and also also, it was rewatching episode 137 of The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon. "Seems like less risk to go somewhere we can get in and out fast, rather than somewhere we'll have to dick around hunting for things."

SecUnit looked up and around at the other bots, and tried not to let a grimace show on its human face. Its new friends were capable, but not exactly a professional team."...Or we could start small. Do a practice run at the warehouse."

 

[Sophos]

"I vote warehouse, personally. It's lighter security, and while it may not have everything we need it's more likely to have interesting stuff I bet," Radio Head chimed in, tapping its fingers against the table in an absent tune. "Most of all, I'm pretty sure raiding the warehouse is less likely to fuck our fellow bots than a raid on the repair depot would, y'know?"

 

[theunearthlyfool]

Out of the corner of his good eye Avi noticed SecUnit grimace and quickly glanced away. If it was thinking the same way he was, there were no really risk-free options here.

“Oh.” His expression became sheepish. “Hacking isn’t something I can help with, I’m afraid. I’ll have to leave that to you youngins.” The kind of feeds they made ‘bots with now weren’t standard when Avi was constructed. Of all the mods the kids gave me, that would’ve been more useful than about half of what I have, he mused.

He shook his head a little, though it came off as more of a twitch. “My concern with the warehouse is, what if we don’t find what we need?” Avi frowned, a low, nervous whirring sound emanating from his open faceplate. “SecUnit, you say it shouldn’t be hard to sneak into the depot, but what about sneaking out? And making sure nobody can trace us?

"...Wait!” He sat up straight. “But if you can hack the depot, couldn’t you hack the warehouse inventory too? Then we could see if they even have what we’re looking for, or enough of it to balance out whatever interesting stuff we get instead!”

 

[wickedlittlecritta]

SecUnit shrugged. "Depends on if we get spotted in there or not." It was mostly watching Sanctuary Moon when Avi had his bright idea.

"Oh. I can do that. I guess the real question will be if inventory gets updated enough to be useful."

 

[theunearthlyfool]

SecUnit looked distracted, and Avi felt bad for it. They were all concerned, but it seemed extra worried. He didn't ask if the security hack could be extended so far as keep them off audio/visual monitoring; they were on to a better idea now. "...Ah. Well, surely the latest inventory would be time-stamped, so we'd know how old it is?"

He turned his attention to Radio Head. "How do you mean by 'fuck our fellow 'bots'?"

 

[wickedlittlecritta]

And now that there was a plan, why wait? SecUnit hacked into the warehouse systems, and snuck around until it found the order forms and delivery schedules, as well as the inventory ledger. It was updated once a week, and the last update was five days ago. Whoever kept the records was unconcerned with minutia like aisle or shelf numbers, so finding things would still be a hassle. Since the last update was a few days ago, it couldn't be sure any of the parts indicated on the order forms would still be there--the proprietary repair tools? the reactor coolant? Still, it was a start. SecUnit sent its findings over to the other bots.

"Results are inconclusive," it reported. "Probably best to go after the next inventory update, or a shipment."

 

[abirdyofmanynames]

Burgerbot wheeled its way to the group. “Our hours of operation for today are from 5:00 AM -12:00 AM... Is your order correct on the screen?” it asked with a prerecorded customer-service approved chipper tone.

Conversations were hard with such a limited audio library. It was cruel giving the bot an AI capable of problem solving only to skimp out on the comprehensive communication programming needed to actually express itself outside of the available soundbites. If the bot was lucky, the necessary components to remedy this problem would be available at this warehouse. At the very least, the AI could still 'talk' through the screen that served as its face.

[ We should try for a time when the crew is the most understaffed. More people or bots means more hazards. ] it flashed out on the monitor.

 

[theunearthlyfool]

Avi patted BurgerBot on the 'shoulder' in encouragement. "You're absolutely right. I think we can all hold out a squick longer, until we can get a brand-new inventory and evaluate the best time to swing on by. How we feeling, team?"

He smiled, tapping the external drive in one ear that functioned much the same as the other robots' feeds (albeit at a much reduced processing power from theirs). "Meantime, maybe I can't hack stuff, but I can plan our routes of entry and escape. My portals won't work for all of us, especially if we're hauling our stolen goods. I want to be certain we can all get in and out safely!"

 

[wickedlittlecritta]

"Only a few days until the next inventory update, so sure. We can wait," SecUnit said. It rewound a bit of Sanctuary Moon it had missed during the conversation. It had already seen it roughly 327 times already, but still. "Maybe set up some watches. See if we can figure out their shift changes," it added in response to Burgerbot's suggestion. It was a good idea. Just work. "That would probably help us pick our entry and exit, if we know where their security's weakest."

 

[abirdyofmanynames]

At Avi's touch Burgerbot's screen flashed a happy face. [ ┌ ๑ ◕ u ◕⋆.* ┐ ] This felt much nicer than the typically thrashing the bot got while at work. Why couldn't all folks act this polite? It concluded awhile back that customers were an irrational mystery that was impossible to map out.

When the SecUnit mentioned shifts, Burgerbot perked up. "I can help you with that!" the chipper voice played out as the spatula attachments spun happily. [ I was built to watch stuff!!! ] The digital receipt on the screen read out. [ Well... that and make food... obviously ] [ But I am an excellent watcher! ] the AI declared proudly. While monotonous, this was absolutely a task in the bot's wheelhouse. And if this was something that could help the team get the job done, then Burgerbot was the bot for the task. [ I'll record the footage so we review it. Easy peasy. ]

 

[Sophos]

Radio Head nodded to Burgerbot before answering Avi's question. "So, other bots need the repair depot to get fixed too, right? Us stealing parts from an industrial warehouse or whatever has a lower chance of taking resource needed by other bots. In fact it's more likely, I would think, to be stuff the humans need or want for building 'dumb' machines or vehicles, or something. Y'know?"