Most of those questions shall be answered in the right time. I already have some ideas, don't worry.
Freg was just a Mudokon who was fed up with the treatment he got. He though he deserved better than the rest, seeing that he was higher on the ladder. No particular role in the story.
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Chapter 5 – Technical Difficulties
Logger watched the armored Slig walking slowly towards them on the catwalk, while adressing the petrified Mudokons, who didn’t dare to help their fallen brother. „Those who have problems with our promises shall speak now and suffer the same fate as that scumbag in the middle. It wouldn’t be trouble at all, don’t get me wrong. I’ve been eager to test my bolt caster anyway.” Said Zero in a smug voice. He stopped a few meters away from Logger and Croe, and looked down at the crowd. He waited for a few seconds, and, when nobody spoke, continued. „Good. I’m glad noone disagrees with our methods.”
He turned to the Sligs who gathered under the catwalk. „Take care of the remains. And you, my friend…” he turned to the Mudokon at the other end of the hall. „…you deserve a few hours in the Detention Chamber for supporting Mr. Crispy here.”
The Mudokon froze in horror as the baton Sligs walked along the tables and grabbed his arms. „No. No, please!” he called at Zero, then at his captors. Croe shook his head unbelievingly next to Logger. „Tsk. When will they learn? Pleading to a Slig like Dim…”
Logger looked at the baton Slig who was pulling the Mudokon off from his seat. He recognised him as Dim, the loud grunts confirmed this. The Slig apparently had enough of the gibbering and smacked the Mudokon out cold with the baton. The two Sligs pulled the Mudokon towards the exit, his feet scraping the floor as they made their way towards the Detention Chamber. Meanwhile, another Slig pulled the corpse away in the opposite direction, and disappeared under the catwalk. Logger looked back at Croe. „Why is he pulling him in the kitchen?”
Croe seemed to be lost in thought for a second, then said. „Oh, yeah, the secret ingredient! I almost forgot about it!”
Logger fought the urge of retching all over the Mudokons’ heads underneath. Instead he watched the knocked-out Slig regaining his conciousness. He stood up, looking around awkwardly. Zero called at him from above. „Quite embarassing, losing your baton to a Mudokon, isn’t it? Too bad you can’t just disappear like Mr. Crispy, eh?” He let his words some time to sink in for everyone. „I’ll report this to Bernov. Expect a cut of your payment.” As a conclusion, he addressed all the Mudokons. „Looks like we need a new Employee of the Year…”
With that, he turned back and walked towards the corner where he came from. Logger watched him as he made his way towards an opening in the wall and disappeared. Meanwhile, the Sligs who escorted the Mudokons were shouting orders to the laborers. The Mudokons got up from the tables noisily, and let the Sligs lead them out of the Cafeteria.
Logger turned to Croe, momentarily short on words. „Is Zero always like this?”
„Most of the time, yeah. He makes sure that Mudokons don’t start spreading propaganda and stuff like that. Always making an example out of how rebels end up. But sone of them get broken under the pressure and goes nuts like that guy. You saw him, he was desperate to stand up for his so-called rights.”
„Yeah. Maybe you’re right. I guess that energy bolt disorientated me a bit, that’s all.” Said Logger, while they walked back to the platform they took some hours ago.
„Shocking when you first see it, yeah. All we have are these traditional guns…” he raised his shotgun a little. „…while Zero has a top-notch-overkill-disruptor thing.” They got on the platform, and Croe started pulling the ropes.
„That gun must use a lot of energy to create a bolt as powerful as that was. And the way I saw it, Zero didn’t have any energy packs on his back, so the gun might be functioning with a built-in energy cell, which needs frequent recharging. From this point of view, a simple pistol like mine is loads more lethal.” Said Logger casually.
Croe stopped pulling, making the platform stop. „You really got this mechanic sort of stuff in your head, don’t you?” They continued descending and arrived to the Cafeteria’s level.
„Comes in handy when you’re a mechanic, actually.” Said Logger. They were walking towards the kitchen.
„A mechanic? So you’re a half-shifter?”
„Yeah, I have to… give Maintenance a hand in my other half.” Said Logger cautiously. Even though the project hasn’t started yet, he didn’t want to tell anyone about it.
They walked to the kitchen counter, where the other Sligs were already getting their lunch from the Mudokons working there. Logger found it strange that the factory employed Mudokons as kitchen workforce, too. He wondered how could the laborers make such disgusting meals for their brothers... Not to mention meals which contained mutinous Mudokons. Then he spotted a couple of armed Sligs inside, watching over the cooks. Their presence explained it all.
One of the Mudokons pushed a plate of roasted meat into Logger’s hand. He seemed to be avoiding eye contact with the Sligs, which was somewhat understandable to Logger. He followed Croe to a table and sat down. They ate quietly, possibly thinking of the events they just witnessed. Logger found the food relatively good, but he wasn’t as hungry as before. He unwillingly kept looking for pieces of cloth or hair on his plate.
After he finished, he bid farewell to Croe and headed back to the corridors. On his way back to the Maintenance area, he saw other Sligs who were going towards the Cafeteria, longing for a good meal. He suddenly remembered Smokey. He didn’t mention where his guard post was. But, then again, he didn’t mention anything else either. Logger hoped it was only because of morning weariness, which might have disappeared after the coffee.
He took the platform up to level 3 and saw the Slig he met the previous day, before he walked across the catwalk. They glared at eachother while Logger headed towards the by-pass route. With a pistol in his hand, Logger felt more confident than when they last met. The Slig must have noticed Logger’s new sidearm, and remained quiet. Logger booked this as a minor victory and proceeded towards the Maintenance area. Along the way he met other Sligs guarding the corridors – chatting, smoking and dozing off, in other words. Either way, everything seemed to be quiet and calm. Only the sound of the factory rumbling underneath broke the monotony.
Logger arrived to Room 1-3. He knocked on the door and opened it. Phyl and Smokey were already in the workshop. They seemed to be discussing something, but they broke off when they saw Logger entering the room. The Vykker seemed to brighten a bit of Logger’s arrival, but Smokey remained unconcerned.
„Ah, good. Did everything go well on your first shift?” asked Phyl.
„You could say that. Except that I saw a Mudokon get roasted.” Replied Logger, closing the door behind him.
Phyl looked surprised, but it was Smokey who spoke first. „Zero and that bolt caster.” He picked up a box of cigarettes from a nearby desk, and lit one. After a few whiffs, he continued. „Always uses it when there’s some distraction…” he was broken off by a set of coughs.
Phyl sighed. „I can’t say I approve that the Vykkers Conglomerate tests that weapon in a factory environment. Being so powerful and mentally shocking, its presence might demoralize the workforce.” He shook his head, then looked at Logger. „Well, we were just talking about our project here. I came up with an idea today, while you two were out for guard duty.”
„That’s crazy, Phyl. We don’t need outer sources to…” interrupted Smokey.
„As I was about to say…” said Phyl loudly. „…I came up with the idea, and set it before Smokey to get his opinion about it. As you can see, he disapproves.” He glared at Smokey.
„It doesn’t make sense at all. We always handled designing ourselves. Buying finished schematics would eat up half of the funds we have.”
„It doesn’t mean that we can’t change those schematics once we have them in front of us! It saves us a lot of time!” said Phyl heatedly.
„It saves you a lot of time, not me! You rarely allow me to touch the blueprints you work on!” retorted Smokey.
Logger saw that an arguement was about to start, so he cleared his throat. „What’s going on exactly?”
Phyl looked at Logger. „I insisted that we should buy a finished schematic of a security robot I saw on Magog InfoNet…”
„The schematics of the RG series!” called Smokey suddenly. „The RG series, I ask you. It’s suicide!”
„Our friend here is refering to the fact that previous attempts of perfecting the RG unit have resulted in premature malfunction and self-destruction.” Said Phyl between gritted teeth. „Nobody ever managed to solve this problem, but tried nonetheless, since the design itself is rather promising.”
„And you think we can solve the problem?” asked Logger, uncertain about Phyl’s idea.
„Definately. I have a few guesses of what the problem could be. And, as I said yesterday, we are not in a hurry, we have time to analyze the schematics in detail.”
They all remained silent for a while. Then, Logger spoke. „I just wonder why noone ever managed to find out what causes the malfunction. There should be a detailed description of every component of the robot, right?”
„I guess there should.” Said Phyl. „Maybe a component is not compatible with the other parts, and that causes the malfunction.”
„Let’s get this over with. We don’t have all day.” Interrupted Smokey impatiently.
„Right. Those in favour of buying the schematics and perfecting it?” asked Phyl, raising one of his arms, while looking at Logger and Smokey. Logger feared that his vote is going to decide the matter.
„And those who want to stay with the traditions?” asked Phyl, lowering his arm, while Smokey raised his. They both waited for Logger to decide, watching him.
Logger’s suspicion was right. Depending on his opinion, one of his colleagues won’t be too glad afterwards. Phyl seemed more tolerant than Smokey, but he also seemed more capable than the latter. He reminded himself to keep prejudices to a minimum – he has been knowing them only for a day.
Voting for the schematics might win Phyl’s trust while losing Smokey’s. He decided to choose his words carefully. It might mean a lot in the end. „As Smokey said, we don’t have all day for this. I vote for buying the schematics.” Smokey shook his head slightly. „I don’t think it will mean that we won’t have any work with it. Correcting the schematics will take some time, if not more than designing from scratch.”
„True. Well said.” Said Phyl, putting his hands together. „See, Smokey? I’m not doing this to make my work easier. Just think of it… Us, building the perfect RG model… That would mean a lot of reputation and respect for us. And a right headstart for Logger’s career, of course.” He nodded at Logger.
Smokey snorted, which was followed by a set of coughs. He pulled out a cigarette and lit it. „Be it, then.”
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„Log #0588. My first day at Rupture Farms was more action-packed than I suspected. Bought a pistol in the Armory, then made it to the Cafeteria. There, I met a Slig named Croe, he seemed OK. He’s watching over the Cafeteria too, along with some others. There was a bit of disruption at lunch, a Mudokon went berserk and smacked a Slig unconcious. In return, he got roasted by Zero, the Head’s assistant or something like that. It seems that we at the workshop are going to work with ready-made schematics. Thing is, earlier version used to self-destruct for some reason. We’ll try to fix that problem. Hopefully, we’ll succeed, or my career will be shorter than expected. Until we get those schematics, we won’t have much to do. Just hanging around, mostly. Phyl handled the business end of the plan, and Smokey received a call from one of the boilers, must have been some malfunction, but he finished quickly. Appart from that, nothing happened in the afternoon. I better get an early shut-eye again, so I’m signing off.”
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