INT. Andrew's House

"I guess," Hayley said, somewhat distant. Hayley let out a small sigh after saying this, she hated getting dirty, or muddy, or anything like that. She started wondering why she would be getting dirty anyway, as his plan seemed horribly vague. Were they going to be hopping over fences and then peering into people's homes hoping that her parents might be in there? At least his personality seemed to ease her a little bit, as someone with ill intentions would be a lot less perky in their suggestions, no matter how insane. Hayley was surprised to find how well Andrew had cooked the food, it was better than anything she had eaten recently at least. She was also glad to have more than just a light snack for a meal, she was probably starting to look a little too thin. Once again she found herself missing her mom.

After dinner she went into the living room after Andrew insisted on doing the dishes, and started browsing the book case. There were quite a few books on here, which seemed reasonable considering Andrew's status as a teacher. Some of them were definitely interesting, while others appeared to be bland textbooks for different levels of education. Hayley sat down on a couch and waited for Andrew to come in as she wanted to ask him a more about his plans, as their discussion at dinner had drifted into a discussion of food and music. Andrew wandered in, with his usual vivacious spirit and sat down on a chair across form where Hayley was sitting.

"So, what exactly did you have in mind for tomorrow?"

Ext. Desert

"So your plan involves A) Being able to find this bunker, B) being able to activate the defences, and C) That the robots can't detect landmines. What makes you think this was a good idea? Killing a few robots isn't going to make a difference. They can replace them in a matter of hours. We need to take the central intelligence out."
Vickers gestured to the mysterious stranger. "This man can take us to the central spire."

INT. METAL CHASSIS

Inside a dusty, abandoned Grocery Outlet, in a small armor-plated chest, a spark still glowed. The internal memory grated against itself as the discs spun. Inside, there was a spark of life, and weak as hell, but the electricity still run. Deep within the armor plates, bullet damage, and mess or circuits and wires, there was a life. A weak, thready, and entirely electronic life, but it was a spark of life none the less. Deep within a pile of metal, too faint to hear or be heard, a battery still hummed.

INT. SPIRE CONTROL ROOM

Atop the Spire, NinjOP waited. It seemed like the resistance was crumbling on itself. The city was spread out across his vision, and he compared the resistance to pawns, hiding as the MAR Units and MUs and MCUs moved in waves across them. The "resistance" had already lost, it would just take time to make them realize it. Lucky for NinjOP, humans had expiration dates, robots do not.

Ext. Desert

Vickers sighed. "Since you've already committed us to this course, we might as well make the best of it. We can start by investigating whatever it is over there that I saw moving." Vickers pointed off in the direction of whatever he had seen.
"I suggest a pincer attack. It's too exposed to try and circle around behind. If it's a robot, try and disable it- we might be able to get something from it. If it's human, we take them into custody until we can ascertain their intentions. Any questions?"

Sam ran through the clothing store and dove behind a counter on the first floor then shouted to Necro:
"What NOW?"

INT. Clothing Store
"Yeah..."Sam said, getting up from behind the counter and pulling open his coat revealing large amount of alcohol, cigarettes and some illegal drugs as well. Sam tossed a Cigarrette at Necro and strolled out into the store, examining the racks of clothing.
"We could take some of these clothes, maybe changing our appearance would help."

Ext, Crossroads

Mortimer reached the end of the alleyway, there was still no sign of pursuit, which was odd, very odd. To his left was a grocery outlet, there was movement inside, but Mortimer couldn't make it out, there was a red glowing light, which was never a good sign. He turned right and ran as fast as he could.

Ext, Ext. Road outside slightly-less-dilapidated-than-usual-building

There was a crowd gathered around the distribution point, through the sea of bodies Mortimer saw a corpse slumped against the counter, with what he recognised as stab wounds all over his chest. He tapped the man in front of him on the shoulder, "What happened here?" The man turned "Hell if I know, the only person who saw anything was that street kid there, and he didn't understand what he saw." The man was pointing to a scrawny little boy sitting in the gutter a few metres away "Have any bots questioned him?", a nod "yeah, but as I said he didn't understand any of it, the robots were planning on taking him in for obstruction of justice before someone stepped in and explained for the little guy."
Mortimer nodded, walked over to the boy and sat down beside him, he offered the boy all the food he had in his pockets, "What happened?" the boy looked around nervously before answering, "Man shot the van men, then drove it away," Mortimer nodded, "which way?" The boy pointed down the street towards the highway that led to the outer limits of the city.
Mortimer handed all the food over and started walking, these killings, it was starting to feel all too familiar, he knew the type of person responsible, more deaths would surely follow. If the killer was headed out into the desert, then Mortimer would have to find him.

EXT. Desert

"Yeah," said Carl. "I have one. How the hell are we supposed to disable a robot without, you know, getting shot? And how do we know it's not just some animal?" He looked around the sparse wasteland. "I say we follow this guy," he said pointing at their mysterious companion.

INT. GROCERY STORE

By the time that MAR-1136 had been able to pull itself from the wall, the rebels had run out of the door. The MAR unit had heard them shouting, but had been unable to clearly make out what they had said. Running over to the door, it scanned the surrounding stores with its thermal sensors, but was unable to distinguish any human-like figures. Sending out a message to the rest of its squad, MAR-1136 commanded them to sweep the area. In the meantime, there was a damaged, possibly destroyed MCU to examine, and a BrainChip sympathetic to assist.

INT. UPPER LEVEL SPIRE - RAK LABORATORY

INTELLIGENCE: Avatar, MAR-1136 reports that the rebels have escaped.

AVATAR: Curse it! Are the rest of its squad in the area still?

INTELLIGENCE: That is correct. They are currently sweeping the area in order to locate these rebels, but MAR-1136 is attending to MC-74-X and the BrainChip sympathetic.

INT. Clothing store
"What, to the desert? And what do we do once we're there, starve to death?"

Ext Desert

Oh dear, people were pointing. That was never good. In Gremlin's experience there was only ever a fine line between pointing and shooting. Careful to move very slowly, Gremlin lowered himself to a prone position, and began to cover himself in sand. With any luck, if they came over he could be at least reasonably disguised. It was a long enough shot for him to keep his rifle at the ready though.

EXT. desert

The man looked upon his finished sand castle, by all acounts it was very impressive, it looked almost like a model of the city.

It was a model of the city, only the spire was in a different place.

From the model it looked as if it was only a few miles from where they were at the moment, it also looked as if it was right in the middle of the area they used to use for weapons testing.

"I couldn't really show the size of the first spire and still have it visible, only the top floor is above ground you see.
Now, we'll have to skirt round the city to avoid the landmines, oh and don't worry about the radiation, it's only enough to be a minor skin irritant"

The others looked at him in disbelief, not just because he had spoken with such knowledge and sureness, or that he had shown himself to be even more multisided, or even that his plan sounded insane..

It was mostly because he had used most of their water to build a sand model, which he was now destroying by pretending his hand was walking around it smashing into the buildings while making roaring noises.

Shivari:

Spoiler: Click to View

Int. Andrew's Home

"I know a few people who live throughout the city. Real shady types. They're generally not the kind of people I'd associate with but they're good at what they do; that being trading primarily. One such guy, goes by the name of Hunter, owes me a favour for a courier job I did a few months back. We're going to go pay him a visit. They trade in information just as much as goods and with any luck he'll have heard something or at least can point us in the right direction." Andrew stared into the empty fireplace. Perhaps he should fill it and light it? He was feeling a minor chill after all. He scratched his nose with a finger and sniffed lightly. Wouldn't want to catch a cold. He leapt from his seat to his feet and proceeded to pile a few pieces of wood into the fireplace. They weren't logs or neatly cut pieces; it was mostly broken furniture pieces he'd bagged up to use, chair legs, shelving and the like.

He tugged his lighter from his pocket and lit a few scraps of paper to get the flames going. He didn't smoke, it was a bad habit, but he kept a lighter on him at all times just in case. Sometimes things just need to be set on fire after all. "I..." he began but held himself for a moment as he stretched to stand up. "Ah, never mind, a foolish thought that would have been foolishly expressed." He returned to his seat.

"It isn't quite as simple as merely walking to Hunter's usual spot however. Gangs of looters have been known to gather near his home for the purpose of trading. They're not exactly fond of me and I fear they would be a little bit too fond of you. I'm more of a flight than fight kinda guy, so running may be a necessity. Luckily they have attention spans rivalling that of a small stupid fish, thus we only have to make them lose sight of us for a few minutes before they get bored." He sat back, put his hands together to form a sort of bridge and rested his chin on it, closing is eyes in thought.
"Frankly, not everyone is as well-meaning as I am, and they'd be more than happy to do nasty things to you. I'd be more than happy to go alone and leave you here with Meg where it's a little safer, however Hunter responds to requests from the person, I can't go on your behalf. Even though he does owe me a favour he still wouldn't oblige my request without you present." He sighed, there were other sources of information around the city but at the moment Hunter was the only one who owed him anything. Perhaps, in hindsight, it would have been better to pick up the gun from Hayley's previous temporary home, if only to give her something to intimidate others with.

He leapt from his seat for the second time in five minutes, this time with his head held high, arm outstretched and finger pointing straight upwards.
"Ah-hah! I'd almost forgotten!" He proceeded to dash out of the room, narrowly dodging Meg as she entered to lie by the fire. Two minutes later he re-entered just as he had left with the addition of a hat. A stylish black trilby to be more precise, it was a little scuffed on the brim with a few torn threads. Nevertheless it was still in pretty good condition all things considered and more importantly was that it was clean.
"I told you I had the perfect hat for this. With such a thing on my head there's no way we could fail. Well, I suppose we could, but I'm sure the hat somehow decreases our chance of failure. Maybe. Perhaps. Okay it doesn't, but I like to think so because...well, mostly because I can to be honest." He strolled over to the piano and lightly fingered the keys, a nigh unnoticeable layer of dust lifting up as his fingers swept past it. Sitting himself down, he turned his head to Hayley.
"Tell me my dear," His tone had changed entirely once more, from the bouncy and happy tones they had been to a softer and generally caring voice. "Are you musically inclined at all? Perhaps..." A few notes sounded out as he paused mid sentence once more, "Perhaps we could find you something to enjoy. I find playing can, at times, distract us from the less happy parts of our life. Certainly better than alcohol at any rate, even if music is a tad less portable these days."

INT. Clothing Store
"Hence the disguise idea, we could put some light makeup on, maybe some glasses and hats and the robots might not recognize us for at least a few minutes longer," Sam says, then turns and looks absentmindedly out the window. He does a double take as he sees the mechanic shop across the street. "We may be able to get a car too, look across the street."

Ext. Grocery Store

The humans fleeing very far before his chance to react, Dr. Nurembaug left the Grocery store and continued to patrol the streets.

Chris had moiled the plans over the plan
"Not bad..Landmines could be a problem. I didn't even know about them."
Chris took another look around and found something that looked like a cavern-perfect.
"It isn't destroyed. However there isn't anything there other than the defences. I can assure you of that."

Chris looked at Vickers, then Carl, then the other guy
"What do you think about flying?"

INT. GROCERY STORE

MAR-1136 was confounded. One minute, the BrainChip-implanted human had been on the ground, then, while the MAR was attending to MC-74-X, the human had left the store. MAR-1136 made a hasty decision to follow the human - the MCU was merely damaged, not destroyed, and MARs were not designed with any repair libraries for NinjOS units, and only rudimentary libraries for repairing their own kind. Running out into the street, MAR-1136 could still see the human in the distance. Spooling up its electric motors, it set off in pursuit, hoping to discover just why a BrainChip sympathetic should be present at the same location as the rebels. It shouted as it ran after the human - a strange one at that, with some very... robotic characteristics - not unlike the Avatar, who was known to have interfaced part of his body with machinery.

MAR-1136: Halt, human! This is MAR-1136 - The MAR units present no hostility towards those sympathetic to the robotic cause! The Intelligence Collective merely wants to ascertain your identity!

EXT. Streets of the City

Nurembaug stopped quickly, turning to face the pursuing robotic sentience. He awaited it's approach patiently.

INT. Clothing Store
Sam pokes his head out the door, checking once more for any bots hanging around, then sprints down the alley after Necroswanson.

EXT. CITY STREET

The human had stopped, MAR-1136 had observed. Spooling down its electric motors, it cruised to a stop just yards away from the human, and presented itself.

MAR-1136: Greetings, human. I am MAR-1136 of the RAK Mobile Intelligence Collective, and you appear to be a BrainChip sympathetic. A question from the Mobile Autonomous Intelligence: What are your directives, and what is your identity?

Ext. Street

The Doctor stood, starting up at the great automaton's optical sensor.
"I have no known directives." his low-grade voice box croaked. Robert also revealed a card, an old ID tag, with his former information on it. He had been head of Research and Development in robotics, after all. Maybe this robot would respect that. He produced it and offered it to the unit. "And this is all I have for an Identity."

He spoke again after the mechanical one processed these things. "Was that MCU destroyed?"

INT. UPPER LEVEL SPIRE - RAK LABORATORY

Sitting at his desk, and examining some pages of code for the operating system of the new AUR units, the Avatar was trying to figure out the causes of a few bugs that he had identified. He was startled when the Intelligence began to call him to attention.

INTELLIGENCE: Attention, Avatar! MAR-1136 has just identified the identity of the BrainChip sympathetic in its vicinity. It appears to be one Robert Nurembaug.

The Avatar was struck with shock. Nurembaug... he knew the name. He had been an eminent roboticist before the robotic uprising, and the Avatar had even examined some of his work. He was talented, and could be very useful on the side of the robots, if properly prompted.

AVATAR: Noted. Keep me posted, and try to get him in here. I could use somebody with that talent.

EXT. STREET

MAR-1136 had finished scanning the human's identification, and had scanned the consistents of Nurembaug's body, knowing that it had correctly identified him as a cyborg. In fact, a large amount of this human's body was mechanical or electronic in nature. Having secured this information, it received the missive by the Intelligence that this human was to be considered important.

Processing the human's question, the MAR unit soon replied, "The MCU still has signs of life. It could be repaired, with time and effort, but because the MAR line of robots is not programmed with any repair routines, I planned to take its shell to the nearest repair depot and have it repaired by the NinjOS utility robots."

Ext. Street

Nurembaug scoffed. "Time and effort, he says..." He puzzled a bit, recalling how exactly to repair an MCU. "If you'd care to be my assistant, MAR-1136, I would be able to repair the unit."