Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It was the fifth warehouse Connor investigated that day and the most suspicious thing he encountered were two expired coffee crates that supposedly were going to be dispatched for consumption the next day.

The case was frustratingly undeveloped for some time, so much that they called the famous ex-deviant hunter to analyze the situation and to search for some trace that could have gotten unnoticed by looks incapable of reconstructing a scene using a physical simulation software implanted in their brains.

And even then, nothing of relevance was discovered. If Connor hadn’t been part of the investigation team and hadn’t seen with his own visual sensors the scenes of the crimes, he would classify the case as an urban legend, because despite the obvious evidence that the crime HAD happened, nothing could be found about the perpetrator. Biological samples? Not even a strand of hair. Escape route? Accordingly with the reconstruction of the scene, all of the paths leading to the exit would have been captured by at least one security camera, but mysteriously not even one framed the criminal, and checking their systems had not revealed any sign of corruption or  tampering.

Motivations and psychological traits of the suspect? Well, that’s where things started really to enter into parameters, as human classification goes, classified as “macabre”. All of the corpses were primarily reported, without exception, by an individual that had some significant emotional importance to the victim: spouses, parents, children, lovers… And the bodies would always be found with an open wound in the left side of the chest, where could be noticed the absence of their heart.

It’s in these moments that Connor wished he had never gone deviant, so that he could have never been able to emotionally comprehend such repulsiveness. Emotions may be impossible to compute in tracking sensors, however, somehow it seemed that all of the environments linked to the case presented an atmosphere of almost palpable despair.[̵͉̩͗̊͝>j̸͉͓̻͆u̶̘͔̮͗̎̓ş̶̭͕̈́̀ṭ̵̤̘̀̎͡ ̵̛̥ļ̸͔̑͂ͅḭ̴̘͑̔͝k̷̜̠͓̔e̶̹͔͛ ̴͓͎̂t̶̼͎̋̂͜h̵͔͍̒ẹ̵͓́̕ ̸͈̳̿͠d̷̺̘̽̕a̸̳̟̼̔͝ẙ̷̪̤̂͛ ̵̨̒͗͡0̷̥̐͆2̷͔̰̂/̷̬̐ͅ1̷̟̣͑̈̎4̶̧̘̀͘̚/̸̤̫̌2̶̻͉̬̄0̶̖͖͆̓͜4̵͍̠̫͋0̸̖̥͑́̐,̷̦͋ ̵͕̠̹̂̍̎1̶̏̚͜͡4̷̺̫͙̉͗:̴̬̐4̶̪̳͐2̵̢̠͗,̷̺̄̽̈́ ̴͚̔͋̀o̶̥̕n̶̜̲̏̑̈́ ̸̻̾t̸̫̱͗̎͝h̵̳̖̀̅͡e̵̞͖̜̕ ̸̟͇͉͐͠ỏ̵̹̑͘p̷͍̩̥̀e̴̬͑̾ŕ̵̛̻͙̰a̵͔̐͛̽t̸̲͓͕̂-]̷̨̦͊͠ͅ

Well, the warehouses. They were the most recent lead that the team had managed to build from the pieces of this puzzle. One of the victims had a mechanical valve in his heart due to cardiac problems. The valve was one of the most technologically recent models, and, coincidentally, one of its microcomponents emitted a weak radio signal that just barely could be detected in a grand scale. The problem? This same signal was also emitted by other 3 types of electronics that were in circulation at the moment, not counting the portion of approximately 2000 Detroit inhabitants that had the same valve in their hearts.

Due to this, so that this search could at least be executable, the team decided to restrict itself to the signs detected in places with low human circulation and/or that had some cooling or preservation mechanism nearby that the assassin could have used to store the organs acquired from the crimes he committed. This reduced the number to 242 possible locations, not an ideal number, but at least it was viable to in-person investigations if the team split up.

Therefore, the android left the DPD that morning with the most optimal route pre-programmed in his processor. Five warehouses and another seven innocent citizens’ houses, no clues were found yet.

Connor had just arrived at the sixth location, an abandoned butcher shop in an old part of the city limits, when some events happened in sequence. First, the police car mysteriously malfunctioned, leaving the android stuck 100 meters away from the building itself. Second, when he tried to call to alert  his partners from DPD that he would need a tow, he was impeded by the complete absence of signal, even though the area was clearly within range of the nearest cyberlife systems router.

He registered an observation to bring the vehicle in for an assessment and to report the location for repairs to the electrical wiring after the mission, and made his way to the abandoned facility. He had barely reached the door when his hearing sensors picked up screams coming from somewhere inside the building.

[Objective completed: find the kidnapped victim]

[Next objective: recover the victim with as little physical harm as possible]

Connor silently picked up the lock and infiltrated a room where at some point used to be a reception. The environment had a counter next to unplugged refrigerators and, at the rear, hooks that previously held pieces of meat for display. At first, the scene didn’t present anything out of the ordinary for an abandoned establishment, but in less than a millisecond, the detective’s physical simulation software detected changes in dust patterns, indicating the recent presence of someone at the location.

Another scream from the back of the butcher's shop reminded Connor of the urgency of the mission. The police android drew his gun and flanked the entrance to the refrigeration room, while applying minimal pressure to the door to open a small opening to allow inspection of the situation.

The slightest opening already revealed a carnage, blood covered the walls while a pile of human hearts sat in the corner of the room, and the floor was completely filled with incomprehensible symbols written in red paint [>Blood?] [Sample analysis required for confirmation] . The scene, combined with the low temperature captured by his thermometric sensors and the victim's screams only weighed down the somber atmosphere of the environment. If Connor had to describe the setting in some figurative way, the first thing that would come on his processor would be dark . So dark that the environment itself seeme- [̴͔̾Ś̷̠͔̞Y̷̦͖̹̆̐S̸̤̉͆͂T̵̹̩͑E̴̡̼͎̐̑M̶̘͂͟ ̷̹͍̱̚͠È̸̞͎̲̒R̶̹̙͐͆R̵̘̝͓͗̆͗Ọ̷̮́̎̀R̶̡͙̿ͅ]̸̪̙̑̉̀

THE MISSION! Connor, the mission! The kidnapped victim didn't need Connor the divergent, but rather the RK800 machine that fulfills its objectives regardless of external conditions. [Initialized combat program]

After opening the door a little more, it was finally possible to see the mysterious killer. The hooded being was distracted reciting some prayer in an unknown language, while holding a knife that was probably being used to torture the victim who was in the middle of the room.

Connor took exactly 0.73 milliseconds to calculate the best route that would allow the victim to be removed from the danger zone and the offender to be incapacitated. Instantly, he executed the plan. The door slammed open, momentarily startling the perpetrator, a moment well used by the detective to fire two shots in his legs. Connor barely saw the killer fall to his knees before he was at the victim's feet, taking a defensive position.

It was then that Connor could finally see the figure behind the hood. The being that stared at him with its intense yellow eyes had red skin, two protruding horns on its forehead and sharp teeth in its mouth, which was set in a grimace of frustration. That thing was clearly not a human being, and with a quick thermal scanner, it couldn't be a droid either.

When the situation started to look like it couldn't become more strange, the murderer pulled out from his cape a strange metal cylinder which then emitted a lean red laser blade that buzzed like electricity. [New combat strategy required… processi-]

But the combat program didn’t have the time to respond before the indiscriminate sword attacks of the enemy, and Connor almost hadn’t the process capacity to carry out evasive maneuvers timely to not be burned by the laser. The assassin was unbelievably fast, having a shorter reaction time than a cutting-edge technology military android, an indication that a better strategy than depending on brute-force would be needed to apprehend the suspect.

Slowly, Connor was being cornered amidst the criminal's blows, but he used this position to his advantage, analyzing the room from his new perspective and searching for an alternative course of action. Use the hooks attached to the ceiling? A 34% chance of success, however, considering the attacker’s unpredictability and the fact that the hooks themselves had a 56% chance of actually being harmful to the detective, this path is definitely out of the way.

And then the assassin cut short his analysis with an almost fatal blow, yet the android managed to strategically shoot his opponent forcing him to dodge, and Connor took advantage of this moment to run to the other side of the room. Seconds later, the transgressor turned and lunged at the detective, continuing his attack combo. However, it was possible to observe a certain hesitation in the last advance, and, with a brief scan, it was noticed that the surprise shots at the beginning of the conflict were significantly affecting the enemy's performance now.

[Interim strategy selected] Connor kept playing the cat and mouse game, shooting to distract the enemy and then running, letting his programmation run his reflexes while he returned to look for an alternative to end the fight. In a moment of inspiration, he turned his sensors to the attacker’s weapon and decided to inspect it with his scanners to search for any mechanical loophole that could be used.

What he found was certainly peculiar. Apparently, the metal cylinder contained an extremely energetic crystal, the most likely component to be originating the laser beam, since two mechanisms which appeared to be mini amplifiers and redirectors that were connected to the gem. But when trying to inspect further, Connor made a wrong move and found himself with 89,5 kilograms of “really angry red guy” on top of his body.

The assassin positioned the sword at his neck, about to deal a fatal blow, but the detective managed to grab the perpetrator's wrist, and the battle turned into a lethal arm wrestling competition. Even with the sheer force of the android’s steel upper limbs, the sword refused to budge. In the struggle the blade came down to the height of Connor’s chest, and with one slip ended up brushing his shoulder, according to the warning he had just closed on his display. The detective knew that if he wanted to complete his mission, he urgently needed to get out of that impasse and distance himself from the enemy before he died from a hand slip.

Yet it was in this moment that came before his processor the schematics of the enemy’s weapon, and with that a new action route was made possible. There was a 79% chance of Connor succeeding to overload the blade, if he redirected a part of his system’s energy and tried to stimulate a crystal reaction with the radiogram equipment installed in his hard drive. However, there was also a 96,6% chance of the explosion being sufficiently strong to harm [> Fatally?] the assassin, and therefore, also damaging the android beyond repair.

Connor turned his visual sensors towards the victim. Straight away it was possible to see all the wounds inflicted by the torturer and her look of despair. Miss Claire Deville, a young woman who had just moved in with her father to Detroit, recently graduated with exemplary academic grades. Her records indicated she was a citizen with high potential and that should have a brilliant future ahead of her.

[Objective: recover the victim with as little physical harm as possible]

The android recalculated the hostage's chances of survival, and found her beyond the blast radius. He also noticed that if he were to perish in the explosion, it was already  close to check-in time with the rest of the team, and without any response, the protocol was to send a rescue team which would probably get there in under 20 minutes. Who knows? Maybe the rescue party could also arrive in time to prevent their companion from permanently disconnecting himself from reality.

Without a processing moment to spare, Connor implemented his plan. He adjusted his grip so that he could grab and connect with the attacker's weapon, and then initialized the programs that allowed him to direct all his energy to the mechanic cylinder. Little by little, the metal was heating up, and the red blade started to flicker and fail, demonstrating the increasing instability of the crystal.

As soon as the killer realized what was happening, it was already too late. The sword was sparking wildly, one step away from exploding. Connor then gave the criminal his best sarcastic smile, and emitted a small radiation bean towards the crystal. And then, the world went up in flames.

******************************************

At the exact moment the flames calmed down, the symbols painted on the ground began to glow as the killer's blood spread across the floor. The glow then reached the android, who was thrown to the other side of the room by the impact of the explosion, yet miraculously did not have any damage that would indicate a permanent shutdown. The light in an instant intensified drastically, blinding the entire environment for a few seconds, until disappearing almost as instantly as it appeared, and with it, both of the figures, the symbols, the blood, and even the pile of human hearts, leaving in their place only the traumatized victim and the memory of that unbelievable conflict that left no trace as proof.

******************************************

[Initializing…]

[Diagnosing systems…]

[Error 506#, compromised systems, seek support from Cyberlife at the next opportunity]

[Error in components: 876#7, 787t#, 01b13#...]

[Low thirium level, seek urgent refueling]

[System operating in conservative mode until problems are corrected]

[Initialization complete.]

.

.

.

Connor opened his eyes and came across an unexpected landscape: the wall of an unknown alley. When trying to find himself with a GPS signal, he realized that he was still affected by the absence of signal.

The android stopped for a moment to assess his condition. Cleaning 15 error messages on his display, he observed that his locomotor limbs were in full working order (if somewhat miscalibrated, he would deal with the consequences later), the processor also did not present irreparable damage, and the other errors around his system could be remedied with only some days of self-repair and by restoring thirium levels.

After the assessment, it was clear that the fact that Connor was in such good condition even after the size of that explosion could only be a miracle, considering the extremely low chances of surviving the detonation.

With his physical state established, the detective decided to leave the alley to investigate his new situation and try to find himself even without GPS. Also, trying to find a place where the connection could be reestablished was necessary too.

However, it seemed that the surprises were not over yet. From the entrance to the alley it was possible to observe a landscape worthy of a science fiction film, with peculiarly shaped skyscrapers that were so high they formed an urban jungle, where the wildlife consisted of flying cars (ships?) which ran in different directions at different heights in an indifferent choreography. Not only that, but the individuals themselves who walked among the catwalks added another surreal touch to the scene: instead of just humans and androids roaming the streets, there were also beings of the most diverse forms, sizes and colors, and also with more than 4 types of dialects being spoken at the same time everywhere his auditory sensors could detect.

Well. It looked like Connor wasn’t in Detroit anymore.

Chapter Text

Stumbling aimlessly through the walkways of this strange planet, Connor found the futuristic equivalent of a plaza, where he sat on a bench and stopped to consider everything that happened to him in the last few hours.

He wasn’t on earth anymore. Now, how to get back? Is it possible to come back? Ȋ̸̺̥͖͉̌̔̏͑ͅs̷̗̲̻̱̾̅̽ͅ ̵͓̳̏͋̾̎͋͜i̷̳͕̫͗̑̀͘ẗ̷̡̲͈́͂́̅͝ ̷̨̳̞̙͙̈́̅̑̏w̴̍̚ͅo̴͉͒̒̈́͐͡r̶̜͖͖̝̒́̒̅t̵̼͖͚͙̍̈̃͜h̴̢̗̹̺͑͋͡ ̴̹̹̭̞̮́͂ị̴̛̤̺̹̋̽̌̿t̸̫̳͂̿̕?̵́͛̅̉͜

[> Let’s rewind it a little bit]

[>There are no doubts that the incident with the mysterious figure from the warehouse was the trigger for this absurd situation. But how, exactly, did it happen?]

The android searched in his memories all the visual recordings of the room where the victim was being tortured. While deeply analyzing the footage, particularly the environment details and the murder’s demeanor, two factors were noticed that could have been related to the cause of this unexpected trip.

Firstly, there were the strange symbols painted in blood on the floor. With his reconstruction program, the detective digitized and formatted the runes into a way more organized document; and while doing this, he was also comparing the images with his database of languages, trying and failing to find a match. Then, he decided to manually translate the words by using an archaeological technique that he only had installed in his memory because of a lost question in a DPD trivia game.

Although in the end he did obtain high-resolution images of the dialect, he didn’t have enough data to identify the meaning of the supposed words... On the other hand, comparing  with his digital records of human culture (and of the few horror movies he had watched), Connor was confident that those geometric patterns, accompanied by the fact that the killer drew them with the blood from the hearts of his victims, this was, plainly, a demonic ritual.

However, being the fruit of pure technological science, Connor refused to believe that his current state was due to a supernatural cause. And that’s what brings him to the second point: the laser sword’s crystal.

[Rescuing mechanism analysis] And with the blink of an eye, the fascinating interiors of the mechanical cylinder appeared in his display. Calmly, the android reviewed the model in front of him, while calculating all of the possible interactions that could have been consequences of his electrical interference in the weapon’s systems.

The new numbers came in, and they were compatible with those hastily calculated at the time of the engagement. Checking his last uncorrupted records, it was also clear that the explosion had actually occurred.

But was it just an explosion? Connor had to recognize that he was dealing with an unknown variable. [> Maybe a completely new atomic phenomenon that resulted in a spacetime rift????] There was too little evidence to draw a plausible theory, but it was  undeniable that the truth would be connected to the peculiar crystal.

[New main mission: return home]

[New main objective: collect information about the event that led me here

• Information about the unknown language

• Information about the unknown crystal ] 

With some difficulty, Connor started to get up from the bench, until a small failure in the pressurization system in his right lower locomotor limb caused him to fall back onto the seat.

[New priority objective: fix myself

• find replacements to damaged components

• find materials to synthesize Thirium ]

Fortunately, his second try at lifting himself up was a success. Standing there, he stopped to consider his next course of action. Despite having many objectives in line, Connor didn’t have any idea how to proceed in this strange world filled up with more strange people who also speak a strange language and with no internet connection… 

[> Wait…]

[> This society clearly is advanced enough, taking into account the holograms, flying cars, hovering mechanisms…]

[> With this level of technological advancement, there should be for sure some wireless information network!]

[Scanning for wireless information signals…]

[...]

[2 unknown networks found:

• Network 1: ΉӨᄂӨПΣƬ

• Ņ̵̥̲̀e̴͍͗̈́̇t̷̡̲̗͋̕͝w̶̛̞̟̽ǫ̶̏̓r̸͚͆́̌ķ̷̮̋̋́ ̶̮̾̂2̸̡̻̼͡:̸̩̱̊ ♍︎♋︎●︎●︎⬧︎ □︎♐︎ ⧫︎♒︎♏︎ ◆︎■︎♓︎❖︎♏︎❒︎⬧︎♏︎

[Network 1 selected]

And suddenly his display exhibited billions of available pages for browsing. With a mental “click”, Connor selected a random tab and came across what looked like an internet website formatting common to earth… Only, it was written in the same unknown language of this city.

[> So it’s gonna be the hard way then…]

The RK800 model, even though being a masterpiece of Cyberlife’s technology, did not come bundled with language decoding applications - actually, those programs only existed only existed in military equipment and in some models of archaeological assistant androids, due to the effect of the algorithm on RAM - but it was possible to brute force a translation app if he manually programmed a temporary app in his processor.

To summarize, he was going to create a logical program based on certain archeological techniques - techniques that he had seen some time ago during a moment of recreation watching ChannelHistory - and then pray that his processor speed, being superior to human reasoning, together with his immense catalog of text samples from the open tabs of the alien internet, are enough to give him a minimum comprehension of the language.

So without further ado, Connor got his hands dirty and started working. After almost 2 hours of concentration, he found himself with an acceptable code and then initialized it.

[Translating…0% - Predicted end time of the first analysis: 9 hours]

[> 9 hours without being able to communicate with the locals of an unknown planet while being severely damaged. Yayyy.]

And it was in this moment that the android detected another presence in his field of vision, a humanoid being with two protruding tendrils in their head was approaching.

“Hej viro, ĉu vi estas en ordo? aspektante iom maltrankvila ĉi tie, ĉar vi restas senmova kiel statuo dum kelka tempo...”¹

Connor had a moment of confusion because of his non understanding of the language, but his social interpretation program detected the worried tone of the voice. Then he realized that, as he was programming, he had adopted the standard pose of his model while inactive. It was a normal pose for an android who had complete awareness of body movements, but a definitely uncomfortable one for a living human being if maintained for a long time. 

Thus deducing what the foreign was trying to communicate, Connor decided to soothe him, saying that he was fine in English and gesticulating that everything was good. The stranger, even though not comprehending the language, appeared to understand the message and followed his way through the walkways, continuing with his life.

Anyway, the translation was going to take a while to be completed, so the only remaining thing was to wait. However, trying to avoid unnecessary attention, the detective decided to keep moving and took the opportunity to explore the city while taking advantage of the crowd's anonymity.

Yet, although he was acting like a normal passerby, Connor continued to gather weird looks from the crowd. But why? He then decided to move away from the flow of people, and limped slowly towards a balcony of an observation point, where he leaned on the protective railing. 

Then he took a moment for himself, and appreciated the urban scenery for a little bit, noting that it was starting to get dark. Yet, it looked like the city was just starting to wake up, with a lot more people circulating the streets now than when he first had woken up in the alley.

Then, he decided to look down.

The buildings were so high that they looked like they were extending into infinity. Even though it was possible to find lights on on the lower floors, the view reached a point where none of the constructions presented living signals, almost like they were abandoned due to the alarming levels of pollution and radiation (if the data collected by his sensors were correct).

After a few moments watching this dystopian landscape that looked that could have come straight from a science-fiction-horror movie, Connor spotted in his right an extremely polished metal wall, in such a way that he could see his reflection on its surface. With this improvised mirror, he got the first glimpse of his appearance since he had exited the car in that warehouse earlier that day. [> That’s if it still is the same day, I have no idea of how much time has passed when I was off]

Straight away he could see why his figure attracted so many looks. For starters, his outfit was definitely not fit anymore, with lots of tears and dark stains, probably consequences of the roughgoing of the fight against the red angry man. Furthermore, it was notable that his synthetic fluid was having problems spreading through his face, giving him the pale-gray appearance of an unconfigured model straight from the factory. All of this, added to the fact his shoulder was still bleeding a very blue thirium, he definitely didn’t look human.

[> Thanks to RA9 this place seems to have such a variety of intelligent species, or else I would have been standing out like a sore thumb]

[> Anyways, seeking anonymity is gonna be impossible with this appearance. It seems that fiding repair components is more urgent than I expected…]

A few minutes later, the android decided to continue his exploration, not wanting to stay 9 hours standing in the same place. However, this time, he activate- [NOT ENOUGH RAM STORAGE, FINISH ALL TASKS AND TRY AGAIN LATER] [>Damn it. Well, plan “using stealth 100 software to pass through the crowd like a ninja” is a no go]. Even so, he stuck to the corners of the passages, and tried to shrink himself to get as little attention as possible. After all, if those old techniques worked well enough for the human detectives, why wouldn’t they work for him as well?

Walking for a few hours, he didn’t see anything that really stood out for him, just more and more tortuous walkways. Also, he noticed that the futuristic design buildings maintained a distinct structural pattern, only being differentiated by the signs that probably displayed the names of the establishments themselves. Taking all of that into consideration, together with the random civilians circulating from side to side carrying packages and negotiating with traders, it was easy to conclude that he was in a commercial district of this city. 

A little bit of exploring later, he found a structure that looked like a public elevator.

[> If this sector has a commercial function, maybe the other levels could have different purposes?]

 With this line of thought, he boarded into the elevator along with a group of people, and pressed the button for the lowest floor that the machine reached. His idea was to spend the rest of the waiting time of the translation inspecting the neighboring levels, from bottom to top, in order to acquire some knowledge of the urban planning of this city.

The elevator, which was crowded at the beginning, was gradually getting emptied of passengers. It didn’t take long for Connor to be the sole being inside the elevator. And even after the last person stepped out of the platform, there was still 10 floors down to go until the floor he selected. That’s where things started to get suspicious about the lower levels.

The doors finally opened, and the android came across a scene similar to the ones of the floors above, but this time much less preserved and much darker. The structures followed the same futuristic design, but they looked a lot more worn out, even with some graffiti here and there, moreover, there was trash everywhere and the depth was so great that the illumination relied solely on lights of the open establishments. 

Even the profile of the pedestrians looked more ragged, and he could see the familiar wary looks that are native to dangerous territories, just like the peripheral areas of Detroit. Just a few minutes of walking later, the detective already regretted having decided to explore this area where newcomers clearly weren’t welcome, and started his way back to the elevator.

But before he could have done anything, he was approached by a trio of suspicious individuals. The first one had a human enough, but instead of hair he had a gelatinous membrane with tendrils coming from the base of the skull. Right behind him, there were two other humanoid beings that vaguely resembled a “Troll” from an old RPG Connor liked, they had green skin, imposing eyebrows and a prominent jaw with two fangs standing out. In general, they gave the perfect impression of gang members trying to take advantage of some unsuspecting innocent.

“Nu bone bone, kiu estas ĉi tiu hazarda varo perdita meze de la pli malaltaj niveloj?”² said the leader in an obviously condescending tone. Connor did not understand the language at that moment, but he bet his systems that the guy said something like ‘what does this stranger think he is doing here?’

“Ŝajnas, ke ĉi tiu ulo bezonas lecionon pri eliri sola en la nokto, estas multaj malbonaj homoj serĉantaj sensuspektajn viktimojn por iom amuziĝi ĉu ne?”³ said one of the rearguard henchmen while making a punch motion with his hands. This line was another obvious one, probably something like ‘this man needs to be needlessly beaten up so that we can look very intimidating and tough’.

The trio slowly surrounded the detective as they continued their incomprehensible evil monologue. Connor may not be an active police officer, but he was a detective that had experienced his fair share of gang conflicts, so he had already anticipated what was about to come. Without hesitation, he activated his combat program. 

[NOT ENOUGH RAM STORAGE, FINISH ALL TASKS AND TRY AGAIN LATER]

[>DAMN IT! I forgot!]

In this moment of distraction, the android didn’t notice one of the trolls approaching in his direction and got punched right in the face. The blow served as a reality shock, making him realize the situation.

Without the combat program, Connor was definitely at a disadvantage in this fight. Well, he still was capable of fighting without the need of the application, [>Thank you paranoid colleagues at DPD that wrecked me out in the training mat until I learned to “fight like a human”] but he still wasn’t good enough to overpower three man (in which two of them were actually bigger than him) at the same time. 

So he made the most sensible decision in such circumstances: he evaded the punch of the second troll and ran off in a random direction. And after a few seconds of perplexity, the group of gangsters followed in pursuit.

[> Well, this sucks. However they were probably stirred because I’m a stranger in their territory, so if I keep running for a bit they’ll lose interest right? It’s only a matter of time before their biological organisms get tired, now I just need to hope that there won’t be any failures in my locomotor systems in the meantime.]

But it seemed luck wasn’t with him at the moment, because the chase that was supposed to last a few minutes lasted almost half an hour. Beyond that, the three miscreants invited more friends to join the party. Friends that had laser guns.

[> I know I’m Cyberlife’s scientific masterpiece android, but these guys must have never heard of the RK800 model or even Cyberlife in their entire lives! Why all this interest in me???]

It was time then, to be creative. With the translation program taking over most of the RAM, he would need to rely on his deviance bestowed creativity power. [> A really interesting fact, technically a normal machine shouldn’t be able to stay conscious and keep acting freely with my overworked processors, but it seems the deviance brings something like a “conscience” capable of acting independently of programming. That includes all of the miscellaneous things I’ve learned that somehow aren’t stored in any lines of the code inside my hard drive. And therein lies the question, what exactly means to become a deviant? Would this be the factor that differs the non-conscious beings from the conscious ones? Does that mean humanity accidentally invented life? What abo-]

And with a laser shot almost hitting him in the shoulder, Connor remembered that he was in a chase and, statistically speaking, this wasn’t a favorable moment to philosophize.

Returning to reality, he took into consideration the environment around him. He found himself at a good distance from the pursuers on a more open street, but that didn’t mean it was easier to get around, because there was debris everywhere. A certainly profuse amount of debris. And, analyzing the condition of the wreckage, it looked like they fell from an upper floor and were deformed by the force of the impact. Weird. Moreover, there were some things like… Scales [?] [Sample analysis required for confirmation] the size of the palm of a human hand scattered among the rubble. [> Wait a minute, does that sign actually have giant claw marks on the screen or is it just my imagination?]

With another red bolt, Connor finally let go of his deliberation and dove for the protection of a piece of debris that looked like one of the flying cars. The vehicle had no roof, was entirely covered by dust and looked totally worn out, yet if it was a car, the android was confident it would work. Only this wasn’t a car, it was a futuristic flying car, so could it work? He had no idea. Time to figure it out.

It was a matter of time until the group of stalkers caught up with him, therefore he would have to be able to manage with the resources in his hands. A very much alien and technologically different resource than he was accustomed to, but a resource nonetheless. If he could do with that old rusty can that was that beetle car from the flower case™ , he could do with this. And the odds are even better this time! This car is not even on fire! He jumped into the vehicle and started fussing around.

[> Alright, alright. If this is produced on a large scale, for factory testing purposes, there must be some way to start the ignition without needing a key (does this thing actually need a key?) So where is the hood of this?]

The detective then noticed a slightly detached metal plate in front of the passenger seat and gently took off the rest, putting the piece on top of the seat. Looking at the exposed part, he found a control panel with several intertwined wires that seemed to go nowhere. Yup, definitely not a car. And also definitely not something Connor could activate without in-depth analysis of the vehicle's components, a deeply heavy analysis that could not even be dreamed of with the amount of RAM being used at the moment.

PEW PEW

The pursuers were approaching, this was the perfect time for RA9 to bless him with the notion of witch wire was supposed to correspond to which ligh-

[> Those wires are unusually messy… As if someone had already tampered with them]

[Scanning…]

[Fingerprints marks detected, searching for matches in the database… ERROR, NOT ENOUGH RAM STORAGE]

[> Maybe someone already hijacked the vehicle?] Thought the android, and right after he started pressing several buttons in search of the ignition one. It didn't take long for the dashboard lights to turn on and the vehicle began to hover gently above the ground.

[> The convenience of stealing an already stolen vehicle, I presume.]

Connor positioned himself in the driver's seat, realizing the existence of 2 pedals and a steering wheel there. [> Let’s see if my driver’s license also covers hovering cars]

A shout from behind made him realize that the gangsters were almost catching up to him. So he pressed the left pedal, in hopes to find which one was the brakes and which one was the accelerator. Fortunately he chose the correct option, with the ship launching forward just in time to avoid a shot at the position his head was in 0.333 seconds ago.

The hovering ship was much faster than the miscreants on foot in this terrain full of obstacles, thus it didn’t take long for Connor to lose his pursuers. With this speed boost the stalkers probably had lost their trail and, after spending a little more time moving between the alleys as a precaution, the android decided it was time to stop and look for another way to the upper floors.

[ERROR: locomotor component “#2-34LEG” does not respond] 

However, it seems his legs were paying for all the failures that have NOT occurred in the foot chase, and now they didn't want to stop accelerating. The android’s hands were busy with the tortuous paths that used all his concentration on steering, unable to help his locked legs without causing a crash.

To make matters worse, his systems detected noises similar to the flying car coming from the back. Turning around, the detective spotted two of the gangsters riding hover bikes still in pursuit.

[> I swear to RA9, if I understood the language of this world, I would have a long and serious conversation with these people about the harms of obsessing over androids. This is not cool. And I'm not even a brothel android to have so many people after my company!]

Then with a precise turn into another curve,Connor realized he made a mistake. In front of him was a dead end, and with his foot stuck on the accelerator he would have no way of stopping the accumulated momentum even if he let go of the steering wheel and hit the brake with all his might.

[> Time to see if this vehicle is more durable than a wall…] Connor thought while bracing for impact.

******************************************

Sergeant Wesley was having an amazing patrol today. Well, the most “amazing” it can be to a s̶l̶a̶v̶e̶ member of the Coruscant Guard.

An entire sector of the planet was in chaos due to the recent Zillo beast attack and, consequently, the guard became the exhaust pipe for all the overload of Coruscant's other security departments. And speaking of overload, the sergeant didn't even know it was possible for the guard to be more overloaded than they already were, but apparently, it was possible.

This means that in addition to the normal police work that the guard carries out (a job that was already a struggle to adapt to, taking into account all of Kamino's training focused on wide-range warfare against droids, and not on small guerrillas against intelligent factions that know how to easily adapt and that have been operating for much longer in the city-planet) The clone battalion was also supporting the investigation, rescue and even finance departments responsible for the region.

And this was exactly what he was doing now, the clone and his squad were patrolling the lower levels trying to reconnoiter the damaged areas and check if there is any alarming structural damage resulting from the attack that could interfere with the integrity of the upper floors.

In general, he and his closest brothers would take a trip to the bottom of the planet, where there are almost no citizens to complain about their own existence and/or criticize their work, while performing a relatively safe service with plenty of opportunities to discuss any topic with his squad wanted out loud, without fear of having cameras spying on any of their actions.

In other words: a great day amidst all the other tortuous days of life on the guard.

Yet all good things don't last long, and that wall didn't last long enough to withstand the impact of a wrecked speeder that skimmed past Wesley, almost hitting him in the process.

And not long after two hoverbikes approached in pursuit of the out-of-control vehicle, which were piloted by individuals wearing jackets with the characteristic mark of a group of enslavers that the alpha team was investigating without much progress.

At that moment, the great day just dropped to average with the high speed chase and all the subsequent headache in sight. With a hand sign, he and his entire team got on their hoverbikes and followed the runaway vehicles deep into the city.