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D-HEX-23675 series: Journal 5: Unit D-MSU-1 & the war-machine from cell block 8.
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They had told him to wait in one of the other lab rooms of the Aphos wing. So D-HEX-23675 waited, standing on the spot where Emphisa left him. He counted the minutes, letting it turn into hours. He stood silently. At times a Quintesson would hover in to the room, retrieved what they needed from desks or closets and left. Almost none of them looked at him. Definitely no-one communicated with him.

"Yes, yes, we can- oh" The door opened again and two Quintessons entered. They carried what appeared to be a canister on a tripod, covered with cloth. Both looked at him in confusion, and the first Quintesson addressed the other, "Did Master Emphisa claim this room today?"
The second Quint shook its head in doubt, "The roster said of no such thing. The prototype's presence here is probably temporary." A shrill shriek emanated from underneath the cloth and the canister rustled as something moved around.
The first Quintesson shrugged, "Never mind, let's put this specimen in the corner for now. We need to go and collect the breeding specimen as well. We will crosscheck then."
Both hovered towards a corner of the room and placed the tripod on its feet. Whatever was behind the cloth shrieked again but the scientists paid it no mind.

The first Quintesson halted in front of the stationary D-HEX unit, "Do not touch the cage, prototype. Er, what what this one's number again? They created so many I lost count." He held up a tentacle in warning, "D-HEX-something, D-HEX unit: er, how does Master Emphisa do this?" Another glance at his colleague who remained silent save for a helpless shrug. They weren't meant to interact with Emphisa's prototype, were they?
"Order. One follows a command for this unit with the keyword 'Order' to form a binding command from which it cannot break, Master Creator Sir." Hextaida Mandar suddenly filled in automatically. Both Quintessons stared for a moment, exchanging distrustful glances. Was it meant to do that?
"Ahem! Quite right. D-HEX unit: Order: Do not touch the cage. Let us go now, esteemed colleague."
"Quite right, honorable colleague."
Again, the room turned empty.

After a couple of minutes to make sure that they weren't coming back, Hextaida's optics blinked... and focused on the cage he had been told not to touch. There was occasionally a chirp to be heard from it, and Hextaida was a /curious/ mechanism. Emphisa's orders were to wait in this room. The unknown Quintesson told him not to touch the cage.
The robot rubbed his nose, dipped his head a bit lower and slowly sauntered towards the object, grabbing a nearby cupboard and rolling it over to his object of interest. He climbed on top of it, now reaching high enough to face the canister segment. He paused for a moment.
He couldn't touch the cage.
No-one said anything about touching the cloth.
Those were different things altogether.

But... if he touched the cage, he would be disobeying a command given to him. He bit his lower lip in concentration, bending a bit to try and sneak a peek inside the cage from a lower angle.
No such luck.
He'd be risking a corrective surge: If his fingers were to touch metal if only in the slightest, he'd be hurting all over. Master Creator Emphisa would probably find him offline, and be very angry with him.
Perhaps he shouldn't do this. He didn't want to be disobedient… he didn't want to be destroyed as is the required treatment against disobedience.
As if sensing his doubt whatever that was in the cage chirped and shifted. D-HEX-23675's curiosity rose again, and he bit into his lip even firmer. He raised his hands, gently grasped the rim of the cloth, and rose it up.
His optics widened, and he silently worded his awe in a quiet 'wow'.

Inside the cage perched a bird. Its feathers were thick and full, shining a brilliant emerald and turquoise. It had a large beak befitting a bird of prey and shrieked at the transformer looking at it. Its eyes were bright amber. With a throaty hiss it spread its wings as good as possible in its current confinement, and Hextaida felt the shift of air as it flapped the appendages. He tilted his head this way and that to see the bird at different angles. It moved its head likewise, before grating a talon against the cagework in a lash towards those azure optics. Hextaida blinked at such ferociousness and backed off a bit.

"HEXTAIDA! What are you doing?!" Suddenly, Emphisa's voice rung out through the room, and Hextaida startled. He let go of the cloth and tried to back off, halfway tripping over himself and clanging to the ground hard. "I didn't touch the cage! I didn't touch the cage!" He yelped, flat on his back, holding his hands up defensively.
The cloth, unbalanced, slid from the birdcage and floated down to the ground. Emphisa looked at the now exposed cage. The Quintesson scientist settled and stated calmly, "Ah, the Hyltari."
Hextaida scrambled upright, shifting carefully, "W-What is a Hyltari, Master Creator Emphisa Sir?" He questioned. Perhaps if he asked a question, he could escape punishment.
"It is one of Quintessa's native bird species. The form of the beak and the sharp talons tell you that it is a predator; a raptor."
Hextaida glanced, taking in the details. He dropped his shoulders a bit lower, "It's quite… interesting to look at, Sir." He admitted, "This one got curious…"
Emphisa smiled more, "Ah, yes, you have an inquisitive personality core, and Fernicius programmed you to be explorative. It is no surprise that you approached the specimen. Did they not tell you to stay away?"
"No Sir, the other Masters told me not to touch the cage."
"…" Emphisa was silent for a moment, before his eyes settled on the cloth. Pure amusement became visible on his features, "I shall have to instruct them to give you better defined orders next time. As will I be ordering you to execute immobility when telling you to wait somewhere in the future."
Hextaida blinked for a second, before trying carefully, "This one is not to be punished, Sir?"
"You did not touch the cage. I have no doubt that you followed orders as they were given to you; if you disobeyed then your systems would've short-circuited after all." Emphisa dismissed the case altogether, "Anyway, D-HEX-23675, I would like you to meet someone." With that, Emphisa motioned to someone in the hallway whom Hextaida couldn't see.
"Unit D-MSU-1, order: enter the room and present yourself."

A mech walked inside as ordered. It looked like a grey, unpainted version of Hextaida Mandar (who was set in the light colors of steel blue and sandy brown) with several differences. A logo and identification number were stamped into its colorless plating on various places and several steel rings were welded onto the body. A pair of yellow optics peered out from underneath the helmet but there were no facial features below them: where Hextaida had cheekbones and a nose and a mouth and a chin, this mech just had a plain facemask with three slits to emit audio. The entire design left no doubt that 'social interaction' was not something that it would be engaging in a lot.

"Hextaida Mandar, this is D-MSU-1 'Lomdai'. It is one of our new service units that will be making sure that Khalanxis tower will remain in perfect condition. Unit Lomdai, order: initiate greeting protocol towards your template unit; unit D-HEX-23675." Emphisa explained before making room to watch the two little robots.

"Affirmative, Master Creator Emphisa Sir." Lomdai answered. It was instantly clear that it did not have an advanced speech system; the voice was completely synthesized. Still, that did not stop the mech from turning to the more advanced mech and bowing neatly. "Greetings, template unit D-HEX-23675, also known as Hextaida Mandar. This one's designation is D-MSU-1, known as Lomdai."
"…" Hextaida blinked for a second, observing the bow. Then, he mimicked it, "Greetings, unit Lomdai. What is your function?"
"Error: Improper query. This unit cannot parse the sentence, template unit D-HEX-23675."
"Eh, Master Creator Emphisa Sir?"
The Quintesson gave a gentle smile and explained, "Lomdai is the first of a set of units that work exclusively with command words. You have to precede any questions with the proper sentence identifier; query, question, and so on. Try again."
"Yes, Master Creator Emphisa Sir. Eh, unit Lomdai, question; what is your function?"
Now, Lomdai nodded understandingly, "Question acknowledged: This one's function set consists of light-duty building maintenance, ventilation shaft clearing, manual labor assistance, and several archiving tasks to which it is suitable, template unit D-HEX-23675."
"I… understand, unit Lomdai. Thank you."
"Happy to serve, template unit D-HEX-23675." Never had such words been spoken with such a blatant simulation of politeness. It was a bit confusing: Sharkticons and Allicons weren't all that clever but there was a certain aura of liveliness around them; their existence and responses to the world felt right. Lomdai is essentially Hextaida with its personality core deactivated.
Hextaida wasn't sure how to react.

Emphisa didn't give him enough time to think on it, "It won't be often that you can interact with these units, Hextaida. Fernicius will merge Lomdai and subsequent units with a mainframe system. This will mean that they will work according to a task distribution system: These mechs will not be able to deviate from their schedules. I considered it important to make you aware of this before you encountered any of them; they must be kept working. You are not to disturb them. Do you understand?"
"Yes, Master Creator Emphisa Sir. This one understands." Hextaida answered automatically. He didn't have any other option.
The single-faced Quintesson nodded, "Good, then I will now give you free leave to entertain yourself. Fernicius and I will be very busy the coming days to get this new system operational; we will have little time for you but I don't think it's necessary to lock you up until we are done. Your specific access restrictions are in effect as always. Also, stay away from any Quintesson from the Halls of Justice. I will set out your daily tasks but when they are finished you are on 'explorative research time'. Use it effectively."
"Affirmative, Master Creator Emphisa Sir."

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End of chapter 1.
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Bit of a short lead in, but do stick around for the next chapters. This journal will be quite interesting.
Also, NO kill-scenes!