A/N
First of all, I'd like to apologize for the extremely long wait. I've been way too busy with other things right now. Rest assured, I'll finish this story but the updates will just take long.
To Jackel: When Wall-E's hand is turned to scrap, they'll flatten it and make a new sheet of metal out of it. The sheet of metal can now be formed into other things, like EVE's fingers.
Back at the control room, EVE was busy accessing the other miscellaneous files in the computer system. She felt so much better now, thanks in no small part to Wall-E for forcing her to shutdown and recharge her power. Shutting down her systems and resting was a good way to forget the worries that was plaguing her mind.
Besides, the activities had drained her out and her power was low.
Now that she was awake and fully charged, she was back at work, searching the computer database for anything related to blueprints, deactivation, or anything along those lines. She searched for wall-e too but the search yielded no results. She pounded the console in frustration.
Wall-E jumped and whimpered, hoping that he wouldn't be put once again on the business end of EVE's laser cannon.
The force caused by EVE's pounding shook something inside EVE. That was when she remembered that engineer Matthews' diary was still in her bio-stasis chamber. Quickly but carefully, she took out the diary. The couple huddled together as they began to look for clues in its ancient pages.
They first started browsing near the end of the diary, on the last few entries Matthews wrote before he was killed, to find out where the blueprints went.
...I managed to send the courier bot to the transport ship. Hopefully, the documents will reach Captain Reardon.
They skipped a few pages of the diary.
September 1, 2108: BnL had already sent the cleaner bots after us. I could hear fighting going on outside between them and our security personnel. The base's defense guns are not working against them because the corporation must have registered the cleaner bots as friendly units to the base's defense system. So far so good, as we are holding the bots at bay.
September 4, 2108: The bots have broken through our defense line. It was only a matter of time before the cleaner bots kill us and shut this base down. We must proceed to the second phase of our plan.
- We had already begun the second phase. Two squads of security personnel holed themselves up in the spare part garage and drew most of the cleaner bots there. Sergeant Red 's idea was brilliant. The garage provided so much cover from the bots' high-velocity guns as well as a chokepoint that exposed them from fire. I hope that these men will be able to eliminate all of the cleaner bots. If not, at least I hope they could buy us enough time to grab the Wall-G units from the repair room.
Another three pages were skipped.
September 7, 2108: I heard that the fighting is even. The men were still doing good in the garage and the cleaner bots focused much of their attention to those guys. Amidst the chaos, we had managed to grab hold of a couple of Wall-G units. With these units, we plan to program them to remove the killswitches on the wall-e's under their umbrella. Without these killswitches, the wall-e's won't be affected by the deactivation. They might suffer some damage in their memory chip and processor but they will still continue cleaning up the Earth.
September 9, 2108: The men in the spare part garage were down to just one squad. The cleaner bots BnL sent were smarter than the average combat types. They started using explosives to flush out our men. I had just received a report that Sergeant Red was killed ten minutes ago from the explosives. I don't know how long the remaining men will last, but we have to work triple time. We had already removed the killswitches on the Wall-G's and are in the process of uploading the new programming codes in their system. We just need a little more time.
They skimmed through a couple more pages when Wall-E spotted the word "blueprint" on one of the pages. He pointed this out to EVE with a low whistle.
September 10, 2108: I managed to retrieve the blueprints and other sensitive information from the secret compartment in the locker room. It was no longer safe to keep them here so I left our safe zone to get the documents. It didn't matter if my colleauges stopped me from going out there, since our safe zone will soon be anything but. I was lucky to have escaped a cleaner bot during my risky venture. I owe my life to my security escort who drew the bot away from me. Roy, I promise you and everyone else's sacrifices will not be in vain.
EVE's eyes started flickered in delight when they read one particular line:
-I gave the papers to one of our reprogrammed Wall-G units that we are preparing to deploy.
No wonder the papers weren't in the secret compartments! Now EVE had to figure out which Wall-G contained the documents. She flipped to the next page and began reading.
September 11, 2108: We lost all the men in the spare part garage and now the cleaner bots are doing a methodical sweep of all the rooms. Unfortunately, the Wall-G's are not yet ready to be deployed. I hope that we would last much longer, at least enough to get the Wall-G's safely out. If not, then at least we hope to survive the night.
They turned to the last page of the diary.
September 12, 2108: We had managed to get the Wall-G's ready and now we are in the process of deploying them. All my colleagues and what's left of security left to escort the Wall-G's out of the base while I remained here in the control room to monitor the security cameras and plot a safe passage for them.
- I just can't believe it! The cleaner bots managed to intercept them in the sleeping quarters! I watched as they tried to fight through the bots but they just kept on coming. I tried plotting an alternate route but it was already too late. They were dead. And the Wall-G's that were alongside them were destroyed as well.
- I also had lost contact with the Wall-G unit that I gave the papers too. I was so stupid as I was unable to get the unit's designation number, but it no longer mattered. The unit should've been destroyed by now with all those cleaner bots around. There are still a few of us left that I could see in the cameras, but I doubt they will survive. They are closing in on the control room. All is lost. I hope that somebody up there on the Axiom would finish our work and bring humanity back here on Earth.
That was the last entry on the diary. EVE returned the diary in her bio-stasis chamber, concluding that they had to find that one remaining Wall-G that contained the blueprints. They however, had already given up on the blueprints as EVE had already searched all the Wall-G's and found them to be empty.
But, the diary mentioned security cameras. Then something clicked in EVE's mind: The cameras! The recorded camera files should still be in the computer system as they were considered miscellaneous files and thus were not deleted during the deactivation.
EVE accessed the camera files. First she tried accessing the files from the base's cameras and began playing them. There the two robots witnessed firsthand the devastation over eight centuries ago as the cleaner bots assaulted the humans. Most of the feeds showed humans struggling against the bots or humans being slaughtered by them.
Then one camera feed caught their attention: Engineer Matthews putting a bunch of papers in a Wall-G's compartment. They tried to zoom in and get the unit's designation number but the writing was too small to read. Unfortunately, that was the last time they saw the unit. It was no longer shown in any other screen. All the Wall-G units they did see on the screen were destroyed by the cleaner bots, so it was presumed dead as well.
There was no use checking the base cameras' files as they were of no use to them. So EVE continued browsing the other files.
As she continued her search, an input window popped up that said,
PLEASE ENTER UNIT DESIGNATION:
Then something clicked in EVE's mind: all BnL units have cameras in them and each unit's camera footages are recorded in the computer system. EVE threw a look of longing at Wall-E.
Wall-E looked back at her and nodded, curiosity driving him.
Then EVE entered her beloved's designation number: NS-L-713. The screen turned blank and after a few seconds of anticipation, the screen started playing a footage. The footage was in Wall-E's point of view.
Here they saw Wall-E waking up alongside all his brethren. They were inside a Land Crawler, lined up and waiting for the large rear doors to open. When it did, they all rolled out to a world covered in trash. The next footages showed Wall-E and his brothers cubing trash and stacking them up. It was nothing of interest to EVE so she forwarded the footage to a different date.
The next footage showed Wall-E in the repair room performing system checks on himself. This was pressumably a routine check-up back in Clark base so EVE forwarded the footage at a different date.
Other footages showed the usual thing. Some however, showed Wall-E witnessing the loss of his brothers. Some of them just broke down in the middle of work and stopped functioning.
Some fell off cliffs, overpasses and even buildings when the trash they were rolling on slid, causing them to fall.
There was another footage of their experiences with sandstorms. One time the sandstorm struck, they were unable to get back to the safety of their Crawler and so to save themselves, the wall-e's cubed up.
After the sandstorm passed, they slowly uncubed and resumed their work. Some wall-e units however, never reverted back to their regular form.
The most memorable and horriying footage that EVE had seen so far was when the wall-e's were in the process of creating a tower of trash. The tower was already pretty high, almost as high as a ten story building, when an earthquake struck. EVE watched as her Wall-E in the screen watched the tower collapse. His brothers who were on the top fell along with the tower debris while the others at the bottom were crushed and buried by all that trash.
EVE saw the distress in Wall-E's eyes so she forwarded the footage to a date that sparked her curiosity: October 1, 2108- a few days before the deactivation. In the footage, she saw once again all the other wall-e's working, cubing trash and stacking them up. Her Wall-E in the footage damaged his shovel-hand and was unable to move it. Immediately, he broke off from the work and left the work site.
The couple watched as this Wall-E in the footage rolled back to their Land Crawler. Once he arrived, he pulled the lever beside the large doors and waited for the door to open. Once the door opened, a Wall-G unit greeted him.
The Wall-E in the footage approached the Wall-G and showed his broken shovel-hand. The Wall-G lifted its arms and the metallic box under the arms opened to reveal utility tools. The claw that was attached to the Wall-G's left arm folded in and entered the metallic box. Then from the box, a heavy-duty screw driver folded out and attached itself to the arm.
With its right arm, the Wall-G opened the compartment in the middle of its body and retrieved a brand new shovel-hand. Then it unscrewed Wall-E's broken shovel-hand and installed the new one.
EVE's eyes widened in realization: The Wall-G's were not defensive robots as they believed them to be- they were on-the-field repair bots! The Wall-E in the footage tested out the newly installed shovel-hand and was about to turn around and return to work, signifying that the Wall-G completed its job.
However, as it turned out, the Wall-G was not yet finished. It stopped Wall-E.
When the two were face to face, the Wall-G folded its screw driver in the metal box and took out a different kind of utility tool. With this tool, the Wall-G pried open the housing that contained Wall-E's computer systems. Then the Wall-G fumbled inside Wall-E's inner workings. EVE and Wall-E could not see very well what the Wall-G was doing as the camera was not panned in that direction.
Then the Wall-G yanked out a weird-looking device from Wall-E's chest.
"Waah!" The present Wall-E yelled, clutching his chest. But EVE's eyes were transfixed on the device in the Wall-G's claw. Then she gasped, as she realized what it was...
A killswitch.
EVE searched he files for more information when she came across a peculiar video file. The date when the whole operation was shut down was October 4, 2108. This video file was recorded October 5, 2108- a day after the deactivation.
When an operation was deactivated, the individual robot units affected by the deactivation would shut down immediately. The computer system, like this one however, would take a maximum of one day to shut down as it had to delete all the important files and operations data from its system first. On October 5, before the computer system finished deleting the files and shutting down, one unit had woken up and its footage had managed to be recorded by the computer system.
This unit's designation: NS-L-713. It was EVE's Wall-E.
EVE, out of curiosity, accessed the file to see what happened to Wall-E after the deactivation. She was oblivious to the present Wall-E who shifted uncomfortably and turned away from the screen.
The footage began to play. In the video, Wall-E woke up to find the environment dead and devoid of life: biological and mechanical. All around him, he saw his brethren: all of them dead.
Then, as she continued to watch, EVE suddenly felt pain- this pain was a new kind of pain that Wall-E knew all too well: Loneliness. Just watching the video suddenly allowed her to sympathize with her beloved.
She then felt his hand on her fin and his voice spoke to her, "Eevah." From the tone of his voice, EVE could tell that Wall-E did not want to remember that horrible day. It was very traumatic for him.
EVE immediately stopped the video. She could not bear to watch both the Wall-E in the footage and the Wall-E holding her fin with his trembling hand. She wrapped his hand with both of hers and apologized to him, reassuring him that he will never be alone ever again.
But, they had work to do. Now that they found out that one Wall-G unit had managed to escape the cleaner bots' killing spree, EVE tried to track the unit down. Luckily the footage was clear enough for EVE to read the Wall-G's designation number.
Then she opened the computer's "Status" program.
PLEASE ENTER UNIT DESIGNATION:
EVE inputted the Wall-G's designation.
RETRIEVING DATA...
A series of windows with text appeared on the screen, showing EVE everything she needed to know about that particular Wall-G unit. However, everything that she needed to know was not what she wanted to know.
The Wall-G was destroyed in a sandstorm on October 2, 2108. Its signal was lost and the system was unable to track the unit's location. EVE let out a frustrated sigh, but that did not deter her from continuing her search. She immediately abandoned the Wall-G and continued looking for the blueprints.
If they could not find the blueprints, then she had to focus on looking for the power assembly and the parts that Wall-E desperately need. As long as they could get Wall-E his much needed parts, even for now, that could buy them time to continue their search for the blueprints. Obviously, EVE could not access information regarding the location of the spare parts that were transported outside the base as those files were already deleted. So EVE settled on searching the thousands of video feeds from every single unit to figure that out.
Wall-E knew that this will take a while- a veery long while.
But watching EVE hard at work, no longer fulfilling her directive but her commitment, made Wall-E very happy. He did not want to disturb her so he cubed up and rested (which also helped conserve his irreplaceable power supply).
Their stalker watched them. It could not make its move as the two robots were close to each other and any attempt to approach would be met by the white probe's weapon. Soon, it will be able to make its move. All it had to do was wait.
Another hour of browsing the videos, EVE found her lucky break. On one video feed from a wall-e unit, EVE saw a bunch of power assemblies being placed neatly inside a sturdy metallic box. She browsed the other videos, tracking down all the video feeds that captured this metallic box.
Eventually she tracked the box as it was being loaded onto an Air Skimmer. She remembered the Skimmer's designation: GS-A41 and tracked it down on the other video feeds.
Then she found GS-A41 appear once again on a Land Crawler's video feed. In the feed, the Skimmer was caught in a sandstorm and something from the storm must have hit the aircraft's engine as she saw a trail of fire from it. Then the Skimmer continued flying but noticeably losing altitude until it disappeared over the horizon.
Lucky for EVE, the Land Crawler that caught the video feed was designated as MX-L38- the Land Crawler which contained Clark base's coordinates. Things were made easier for her when the feed was caught at the time the Land Crawler was disabled. Judging by what she saw, the Air Skimmer must have crashed East from the Land Crawler's position. Since the power assemblies were placed in a shock-proof metallic box, then they would have survived the crash. All they had to do was return to the Land Crawler and travel East from there, keeping a lookout for the crashed aircraft.
EVE excitedly woke Wall-E up and showed him the feed. Their mission in the base was done.
Wall-E took EVE's hand as they watched the video and analyzed it. Everything was going to be fine.
Suddenly, the both of them heard a loud crack and saw something bright and long pass in between their heads. The object hit the screen they were watching, causing it to shatter. It took EVE half a second to realize that the object was a bullet.
It took Wall-E two seconds to realize that they were not alone.
Maybe things wouldn't be fine just yet.
Both of them turned around and gasped. There, standing on the open doors, was a cleaner bot, its weapon aimed at them. Before the robot could fire another shot, it was blown apart by EVE's laser cannon. Two more Cleaner bots appeared in its place.
EVE's activation of the computer systems must have awakened the cleaner bots that lay dormant, waiting for intruders who would reactivate Operation: Cleanup without proper authorization. EVE and Wall-E dove for cover just as the grey robots opened fire. EVE jumped out of the table she took cover in and flew up to the ceiling.
Her quick movement did not give the cleaner bots enough time to react and before they could train their weapons at EVE, they joined their comrade on the floor. EVE then grabbed Wall-E and flew out of the room.
As they passed the corridors, they noticed more cleaner bots waking up from centuries of dormancy. Those that were already awake opened fire at them.
For Wall-E and EVE, what they were witnessing and the situation they were in was illogical.
Then again, when has 'life' ever been 'logical'?
A/N
Not much fluff in this and the coming chapters as I have to progress the story into a different genre now. Sorry to those who want more fluff as you'll have to wait after the coming chapters are done.