After continuing to work on the mobile unit for 17,720 ticks, J-71 determined that they did not have the power or capability to incapacitate every War Fighter who might decide to enter combat with them so the only option would be to allow X-87 to join them in whatever plan they decided on. With some precautions, of course. From a Builder’s perspective, War Fighters were well known to sometimes deceive and betray those around them to accomplish their own ends. Under the circumstances, it would not cause damage if they could just talk to me as well. After all, the silence is causing thoughts that are dangerous. War Fighter thoughts.

J-71 then moved down the steps of the lab entrance, moved to the computer part pile and in 322 ticks invented a small device which would act as a remote. They then built another short-range EMP device for testing. They then attached the remote to their second universal port limb for programming. They detached the contraption after 65 ticks and welded it to the section housing their own reactor core and activated it on a frequency to the test short-range EMP and restarted their own power core with a 10-tick start delay. The machine sputtered to life noisily without any direct interaction. Their power core then restarted and the machine deactivated without hesitation. They then recalibrated the EMP device that was currently welded to the top of X-87’s computer core for the complete annihilation of all computer circuitry.

“I’ve made the decision to bring you with me for protection, and to ensure that you comply with this I’ve developed a device that will decompile your programs if my reactor core is to stop functioning for any reason. I also have the ability to activate it if I deem it necessary to preserve my functioning,” J-71 bluntly stated. While X-87 understood why J-71 decided they needed the precautions, they were still upset by it but elected to try to hide that feeling.

“Thank you. You’ve probably given me more than I-”

J-71, busily preparing the disembodied parts for reattachment, interrupted, “Yes yes, praise the judge, you do not have to try to get me to go through all of those emotions that you War Fighters find to be so important.” X-87 fumed. If I weren’t trying to change for the better, weren’t attached to this stupid killswitch, or if I had any working limbs…..I’d disassemble this, this….UGH!

As J-71 began working on putting X-87 back together, they remembered the parts lost in the short battle between themself and X-87. They commented, “I appear to be missing some parts from when I took you apart earlier, do you know what they were for? The builder who made your parts should have given you an instructions chip when they finished working.”

“Instruction chip?” X-87 asked and thought about it for a moment, “Oh right, those things! I actually don’t remember where I put it, but I do know that I saw it last while I was in A-01’s mining labyrinth in The Treaty War’s Crater.”

“It completely baffles me how incredibly capable yet incapable your kind is in things that should be universally understandable such as keeping warning labels to parts that are literally attached to your body,” J-71 said as they moved to recreate the missing parts at their metal shape forming unit.

“You’re one to talk, 2 Kilometers per 4200 ticks Unit,” X-87 stated condescendingly.

“Observe who is transferring information, one who can not even operate an atom resequencer.”

“Alright, now you're just making stuff up.”

“I have no idea what that means but given the context, I have an 84 percent chance to not be doing it.”

“All Builders are like that.” X-87 sneered, ” Look at me, I know everything and you know nothing. It’s always the same.”

“There you go again, like all the other War Fighters, relying on pointless insults to win an argument. Is there ever a point where you know you need to halt?”

“You Builders always look down upon the War Fighters because we fight, but we have good reasons to.”

“Example: Ambassador R-29 looked at the leader the wrong way. That was actually a reason for a war that lasted 253 planetary cycles.”

“That’s not real.”

“Example: a War Fighter repeated something Builder F-81 had told them. That was your empire not 79 years ago.”

“To be fair, that was a long while ago.”

“Example: 6 Builders were torn apart until unfixable because it was, I quote, asking too many questions about sensitive topics in public.”

“I honestly sympathize with the War Fighter on that one.”

“The unit was asking about the size of artillery cannons it wanted.”

“There had to be something else in there.”

“I have the recording on standby, but there’s no other information to gain from it.”

“Enough! Surely you have had something good happen to you at the hand of a War Fighter?”

“Why do you think I stay out of all perceptions? After the first War Fighter found me the unit demanded that I build a weapon for them. Specifically, a weapon that could rain fire from the sky. I invented the heavy mortar 3 rotations later and presented the weapon to the unit the next rotation in the form of a weapon test on an uninhabited mountain range. The test was more than successful, having the capability to deconstruct the entire surface of the targeted mountain. It is minor by current technology but it was still powerful. The War Fighter took the controls and aimed it at one of their enemies cities and fired without hesitation. I was forced to listen to the distress calls as the area quickly filled with reactor explosions due to the overheating of the local War Fighters and Builders. Even before all this noise subsided, the War Fighter ordered me to construct at least 50 more of these devices by the next planetary cycle. I waited until they left, deconstructed the weapon and fled. I never stopped running and hiding. Every War Fighter I have met has treated me aggressively, and that story seems to be consistent with every Builder I’ve come across. So I have concluded that the only weapons I will create are ones that are incapable of permanent deconstruction.”

“If you just ran, how could you be so good at defending against me?”

“Whenever I find a salvageable War Fighter I find their tactical protocols, determine which are the most successful and compare them with my current ones. I may not be fast or have physical strength but I have the combat deception of R-66 and the weapon mastery of Q-86. However, I do not have hydraulic power or the movement capability to win a fair battle.”

“Wait a minute. Do you mean, you extract their essence?”

“What is essence? The only thing I download from the remains are the damaged programs from the computer cores.”

“You rob people of their souls after they are destroyed! That's terrible!”

“Look, I do not care about your religion, or whatever you’re talking about. All I am currently concerned with is my impending survival. The only thing that I can do about that right now is to end this transfer of information as soon as I am capable and finish the mobile storage bay soon after step one is complete. In any case, are we done here.”

X-87 was absolutely terrified by this unit’s sheer lack of concern for the soul-sapping effects that have been said to affect those units who tamper in the rusted arts. Also, what’s a mobile storage bay?