An odd sensation, for a moment he lost all sense of self, he felt himself floating among the electric waves in the air, like he was sailing on a blisteringly cold ocean. He suddenly found himself in another body. Go-bot's body. His eyesight and hearing had become far sharper, but he'd lost many other senses, his sense of touch was much duller, no sense of smell or taste of dirt in the air. Really, the numbness made everything around him feel clearer, all the impurities in the air disappeared as soon as his detection of them did, even the cold wasn't a problem anymore.
Being in Go-bot's stubby body offered Ava very limited movement. He waddled onto the main street, the uniform nature the Evos walked in was hard to imitate, but necessary. They were hostile, and seeing anything that broke their pattern of monotony could set them off. Lack of empathy meant they'd scrap Go-bot the moment he showed a hint of malfunction, leave him as junk on the side of the road. That's what it meant to be an Evo, as long as someone was replaceable, it didn't matter if he died. A society built on Block-5 autonomy, a society built on the ethos that beings only mattered if they had a use.
Go-bot was so slow. So so slow. Goddamn. Even though the research facility was only a few roads down, it took almost twenty minutes to get there.
It was a monstrous building, a big black tower that was tall enough to touch the sky. The windows were only small slits in the wall, enough to provide light for Evos that relied on sight for movement. Ava waddled through the front door, the bottom floor was nothing but a cold, wide open space with a reception in the middle. The ceiling towered high above him â all buildings were like that, they needed to accommodate for robots of all shapes and sizes. Why was Ava given a dodo like Go-bot again?
The Evo at the reception was semi-humanoid, in the fact that at least it had a discernible head and arms separate to its torso. Still, it was vastly different from the humanoid Servs, it was made completely of metal, dead, glowing eyes, sharp features all over, slightly rusted. Eugh.
"You do not have a meeting here. You are breaking your protocol." said the receptionist Evo, with a surprisingly sweet voice, "We will call for security so that they can take you to the scrap yard." Shit, didn't the ID hack work? Ava was certain it did. Another Evo came up next to him, a titan of a robot, disproportionately large arms and cold, killer eyes. The receptionist robot talked to the new Evo.
"You do not have a meeting here. You are breaking your protocol." said the receptionist bot, "we will call for security so that they-" the titan grabbed the receptionist and crushed its head in its palm,
"Malfunction." Stated the titan. Oh, right, so the receptionist robot was on the fritz. Phew. Ava was worried for a moment. The goliath looked at Ava, or, from his perspective, Go-bot. Ava needed to tread carefully here, Block-5 autonomy meant he couldn't show gratitude because the titan was only doing its job. Block-5 autonomy basically called for lack of any real emotion. But... what should he say? The titan would kill him the moment he showed too much autonomy.
Then he realised. He had nothing to do with that titan, so there was no need to say anything at all. Talking would've been a sign of personality. Evos were robots, they had no personality. No, all he needed to make his way to one of the terminals.
And so he shuffled to the elevator at the end of the hall, trying his best to maintain his monotonous composure. He couldn't even walk diagonally, he'd have to walk perpendicularly to maintain the straight edge nature forced upon him. Was this really how Block-5 robots lived? How sad.
It's good for us sir Go-bot's voice,
Huh? Oh right, you're still in here Ava replied to the voice in his head, he'd forgotten that he'd let Go-bot maintain partial consciousness during the hack.
Block-5 Autonomy allows for no mistakes sir. I would never be able to help you with my meagre intelligence if I weren't Block-5.
...If you say so.
Following orders makes me useful sir.
That's a really shit way to look at things Go-bot. Sorry but I don't understand it.
I don't understand Block-4 or above level autonomy. But I like being Block-5.
Go-bot... you're ok with being Block-5 because you think it gives you purpose? Following orders without any question?
Yes sir.
Are you ok with being my puppet Go-bot? Are you ok with me controlling your body like this?
This is what I was made for sir
You don't say  This was Ava's first mission but he was already starting to feel awkward doing this. Being in a body that wasn't his made him uncomfortable, a disassociation with who he was and what he was at this moment was troubling indeed.
What is a "puppet" sir? Â asked Go-bot
It's something that is controlled by something else. I guess. What a stupid question. Block-5 robots really did lack thought, didn't they?
In that case aren't you a puppet too sir?
What was that supposed to mean?
Guys focus! Sylvie's voice
You're in here too!? Ava had forgotten, his operator's voice was directly linked to his consciousness, so of course it transferred with him. Tch. His brain was getting crowded.
Ava, this hack won't be like any of the simulations. We don't know what the operating systems of the Evos are. Relax your mind, you'll need to be in a perfect state of zen when you break in there.
Zen. Got it. Â Of course, as a soldier he'd have to be "zen". Even though he'd have to zen himself in Go-bots dummy body.
The elevator door opened. A dark and extremely narrow corridor, no lights at all. This floor was reserved for robots with echolocation, of course, they wouldn't bother installing windows or lights if none of the robots on the floor needed them. Thankfully Go-bot was installed with the ability to locate via sound waves and so Ava was easily able to find the specific terminal he needed. It was pretty important, so of course it was located right in the middle. All it was was a little hole in the wall to plug a network adapter into. Not really Ava's style though.
Hacking time.
Once again Ava felt his consciousness floating through an ethereal plane, this time however, the waves he rode on were stormy, harsh. He could feel interference cracking through the "air" and sharp pains on his consciousness like hailstones hitting his body. A conflict between his OS and theirs. Doing a hack in an environment like this would be hard.
"Shit..." he said as he tried sensing his route further ahead. He could detect classified materials further in, but they were protected by a torrent of lightning bolts that rivalled the storms of Venus. Thousands, tens of thousands of huge bolts of lightning splitting the sky and crashing into the waves. Every robot on this planet was programmed to follow protocol, it was extremely unlikely any of them would be autonomous enough to be able even consider hacking in. Were they really that determined to hide this information?
It really was a firewall like no other.
"Av..a!" Sylvie's voice crackled in the distance, she was hard to make out, "y-your i-i-i-ID. It gi-g-g-gives you backkkk end entra-"
"I know that..." he muttered, "but it's still not enough, the files are too far in, and I can't hack effectively with this OS."
"...W-w-wellll you'rere the Block-222-0. Y-you figu it ou-"
"Yeah, thanks for your input."
Block-2 huh... well, his orders were to hack the network and get the files, but that'd be impossible. But he was a Block-2 because he was allowed to bypass orders right? So instead of hacking...
Go-bot? said Ava
Yes sir?
Do something stupid. Anything.
What would that be sir?
What? Anything!
Parameters are too vague sir.
...Ugh. Stand on your head Go-bot.
Yes sir.
And so he did. Within two minutes two security robots appeared from the end of the corridor.
"You are breaking operational parameters." Boomed one of them. "We will take you to the scrap yard. Follow us."
Go-bot, buy some time.
But-
Ava disengaged. He found himself back in his original body at the roof of the factory, with Go-bot now left exposed in the other building. He put his stealth on to max power, now getting rid of his heat signature, increasing his noise cancelling, sharpening his reflexive actions.
"Ava! What are you doing?" exclaimed Sylvie,
Ava didn't reply. Too focused. He leapt off of the roof of the factory and landed in the alleyway, completely soundless like a cat. The moment he landed he kicked his body off to the right and bounced on to the main road, after that it was a race for time to the building. A full speed run.
"Ava! You're NOT built for combat! If you're thinking of taking those security robots on-"
"Would you prefer if they scrapped Go-bot?" Ava snapped,
"What? He's just a..." Ava could hear Sylvie tut quietly "...Fine, Ava, you should've at least taken this with you."
Sylvie used her remote connection to control Ava's ship, from there she managed to control its internal systems. She quickly catapulted something from inside the cabin, an item was thrown at an incredibly precise angle, high into the sky.
"If you maintain your speed you should be able to reach the baton I've sent out for you. You know how to use its features right?" she said,
"Features?"
"There's a button on the handle that sends out an electrical charge, press it once to set it to stun, twice for kill."
The baton tumbled down from the air as Ava dashed at a blinding speed to the building, he leaped into the air and caught it with pure finesse. Not built for combat she says... he smirked.
"Ava, there are several other routes to the fifth floor. The fastest being- Well. Increase your momentum. You can burst through your maximum speed for an approximate amount of 3 seconds. Make it count"
"...Yeah, I getcha." Ava reached the building, but it wasn't the door that beckoned him. Maintaining his momentum, he crashed through his top speed and went into Burst mode, the incredible speed was just about enough to catapult him as he ran up the wall. After 2.78 seconds Ava managed to reach the window of the fifth floor. Thankfully, the windows were indented in, there was a windowsill to grab on to. Thank god. That alone would've been enough to mess up the mission.
Ava pulled himself up and kicked the glass until it shattered. He turned on his echolocation and landed into the dark corridor of the fifth floor. The guard robots noticed it immediately.
"A disturbance." Said one of the robots,
"The window is broken." Said the other
"No fourth party. Conclusion: window broke by itself."
"Incorrect, windows cannot break by themselves."
"Said conclusion is the only logical answer with the evidence presented-"
"Illogical: You have come to a conclusion that is impossible-"
Ava tried not to bang his head on the ceiling, he shuffled up to the two as they bickered. Stupid robots. Thankfully his stealth camo was holding up, but he could feel himself burning low on energy already. Go-bot was standing next to the terminal, still standing on his head. It had been twenty seconds since they last talked, he'd managed to BS his way into survival for that long... impressive, all things considered. Ava casually walked up to the two robots. He pressed the button on his baton. His thumb hovered over the button... did he really need to press it a second time?
Before questioning his ethics further he slammed the baton into the back of the head of one of the guard robots, a spark flashed and lit up the corridor, it revealed the two guard robots as two oddly shaped orbs with short, fat legs and heavy clamps on both ends. Really, they looked pretty harmless, maybe only small ones were deployed to this floor because it was so tiny in the first place.
The second robot immediately noticed him but by then it was already too late, Ava slammed his palm against the machine's chest and initiated his hacking procedure, within moments he managed to make his way into the OS of the security Evo. Inside the mind of the enemy.
Much better... much much better.
The OS was still completely different. But this time it was far less hostile. He was able to gain a better understanding of the workings of the machine. With this he'd be able to set up a virtual OS and interface with the terminal much more easily.
Oh I get it! If you pretend to be one of them it'll be easier to access, right? Sylvie again,
Well... sorta. Not really. Ava replied Can you stop calling me when I'm hacking?
Lines are permanently open during missions, security measures.
So?
...Well I'm your operator, I'm recording all of this. If I don't understand what you're doing my job is pointless isn't it?
Fine fine. Write this down. I've learned how their inner workings work now that I've directly hacked in to one of them. Now I can change my own programming to be compatible with the terminal.
Ah, that makes sense. I get it.
That sounded like a lie.
Anyway. Time to reconnect to the terminal. Using the security robot he was now controlling, he jacked in with a little wire that extended from its chest.
This time it really was much easier to hack the terminal. The firewall was still up, but without all the interference it was much simpler to break through them. He located the hidden files with little trouble. The file itself was still encrypted but he was told not to open it up so... the secrets inside them would have to be reserved for the higher ups to find out. Shame, Ava couldn't help but be curious what he was doing all this work for.
Once he pulled out of the guard robot and returned to his body, he mercifully stunned it with his baton. Mission complete.
"You look tired sir." Said Go-bot.
It wasn't kidding. Steam was emanating from Ava's body, his echolocation was almost run out. His optical camo was flickering on and off. He'd have to switch to base mode in a moment.
"Yeah. I'm not really built for this sort of thing." Ava muttered, "I got the job done though. That's really all that matters right?"
"Yes Sir."
"Anyway, my echolocation has run out, I can't see in this dark anymore. You'll have to help me out Go-bot."
"I'm afraid I can't sir."
"What? They didn't damage you did they!?"
"I'm afraid I don't have any self-righting mechanism sir..."
Go-bot was still standing on his head.
Ava was forced to stealth his way out the old fashioned way, lurking in the shadows, following Go-bot as they returned to the ship. He touched the edge of the ship to deactivate its stealth, a simple white orb with four boosters surrounding it. He opened up a small hole in the side and plugged his hand in. A little black screen appeared on the side of the ship. Words flashed on the screen.
ESTABLISHING CONNECTION.
...
DOPPELGANGER READY FOR TRANSFER.
DO YOU WISH TO COMMENCE WITH COGNITION TRANSFER?
"Hey Ava." Sylvie interrupted,
"Sylvie I'm about to travel!"
"C-transfer eh?"
"Well, yeah. I can't exactly fly back in person. Not from here." He'd have to shift his consciousness from this body to another that was waiting back on Mars.
"Don't you think you forgot something?"
"What's that?"
"Set your current body to de-activation upon cognition upload man. You didn't seriously forget did you?"
"...Oh right."
"Otherwise you'll have a Block-6 version of yourself just lying there, alone and confused. Kinda cold don't you think?"
"I guess. Surprisingly ethical of you guys." He sighed, "I suppose."
"Well?"
A pause.
"Uh. So you gonna do it or what? I'm waiting next to your Mars body to confirm the transfer. Hey, there an increase in pressure in your body. What's going on over there?"
What's going on she asks. Of course, she was a Block-3, she didn't know how it felt to be nervous.
"Even if I'm Block-6. I'll still be alive..."
"What?"
"Never mind. I'm activating self-destruct for this body."
"Cool, I'll see you on the other side!"
"Yeah."
And so it happened, Ava found himself travelling all the way back to Mars to his original body, leaving the one on Europa alone and confused, waiting to die.