The australian night was interrupted with a large explosion as the main entrance to the Omnium blew up. As much of an psychotic man that Junkrat seemed like, there was no denying that he knew how to blow things up.
The explosion was, however, only a distraction so that Reaper and Lynx could get in through a back entrance. More explosions started going out all around the place, but from the inside, the place seemed calm, too calm for a factory that produced robots.
« You know where to go? he asked Lynx.
- I could connect to the cables on the wall to locate the command center, but this would give our location to the ones in charge.
- They have to deal with some maniacs trying to blow them off outside, we have time to do what we need to do if we're quick enough. »
Lynx acknowledge and put their* hands on the cables. Reaper noticed their antennas quickly moving from one side to the other as he started scouting the perimeter. They seemed to be in some alleyway.
« I know where to go, but I have also been spotted. The Omnium knows we are here.
- Then let's be quick about it. »
Lynx sprinted accros the corridors with Reaper following him around. A few sharp turns later, they found themselves on the roof of a large open room. Down, a bright blue light emanated from what seemed like the core and when Reaper took a look down, he had to stop to process what he was seeing.
Around the core, hundreds of Omnics were sitting on the floor in contemplation of the blue light it emitted. They were holding their hands together and seemed immobilized. « What the hell is happening down there… he asked himself.
- Omnics left alone for too long, especially those under the control of more advance hardware, can develop strange rituals and behaviour, Lynx answered him as he kept going. »
Reaper didn't have time to notice anything else, he followed Lynx for a few more seconds. An alarm started ringing across the facility as the doors behind and on their sides started closing. More explosions could be heard and with it, through the interphones, strange metallic sounds, like cackling.
They entered a final room where a large panel in front of an internal window showed very few buttons. « The command center is hidden, Lynx explained. The Omnium are self-improving machinery that will take control of their own management if it is better for them. It seems this one has already done that and has gotten rid of any kind of human contact.
- With no humans around, how did it just rebuild itself?
- Omniums have a mind of their own. They can copy it in each Omnic they produce as a back-up plan. When the first Omnium was destroyed, the remaining robots started rebuilding it somewhere else immediately as a reflex. This time, it is fully automated.
- Can you still hack it?
- Of course, Omniums are still machines. I have been built to hack other machines, even automated ones.
- What are you waiting for?
- I just need to find the right switches first, but this panel has been mostly covered and reinforced with… »
Reaper took his shotguns and shot the sides of the panel only to grip it with his metal gloves and pull out the large metal sheet that was covering most of the buttons. Lynx didn't take the time to interfere, they jumped on the occasion and located what they were looking for. « I will need a few more minutes to access the full storage of the Omnium. I also sense Omnics coming towards us.
- Let's get to work, then. » Reaper said as he reloaded his shotgun and turn to the corridors they came from.
The door opened and a dozen Omnics stood there, staring at him with bright blue lights on their face that seemed uncanny. Reaper aimed his shotgun at them. « Don't do something you would regret. »
They all jumped on him and he tore them apart one by one, shooting scraps of metal and oil on the floor and the walls, throwing metal carcasses away and kicking the rest out of the way. He walked back to the core's room and looked down : all of the Omnics that used to be sitting there were gone.
He stopped for a second and listened. Aside from the distant explosions and the electronic sounds that Lynx was making a few room further down, the entire Omnium seemed silent. He didn't like this, usually those kinds of fights lead to chaos all around the place, but this time, the Omnium seemed completely fine with all of the action going on. Reaper could only hope it wasn't preparing something, but he knew his odds were low.
A powerful blow like thunder struck from the command room, he quickly ran back and found Lynx on the ground, their lights flickering from green to light blue, shacking on the floor. Reaper took them, put them on his shoulder and ran away. They'll get the mission done another time. Right now, he had to get out of there.
He sprinted across all the corridors only to find out that their exit had been blocked by a metallic door. He put Lynx down and armed his shotguns at the door's handles, but the bullets didn't force their way across it, it seemed too thick for his bullets. He tried to pass under it by turning into mist, but after a few seconds of not being able to find anything, he had to turn back, even more in pain than ever before. If he could've communicate with Junkrat, he could've made him blow this one up, but it seemed like he needed to get out through the main entrance which should've already been blown out by now. The problem was that he had no idea how to get to that point. He put Lynx back on his shoulder and went on the search but, after fifteen minutes of stressing out over the silence of the place, he couldn't find an open door that lead him anywhere. In the distance, the explosion had stopped, did they run out of explosives or was it much worse? Reaper decided it was best to hide Lynx somewhere and figure a way out on his own.
When he walked back to the command room, he noticed all of the Omnic bodies he had teared appart were no longer on the floor. When he got into the room, he saw the command panel had been repaired and the metal sheet had been replaced. He looked at the window and noticed what looked like the blue light of the core, only this one seemed different than the one he had seen before, maybe it was a second one.
When he got closer to look through the glass, he noticed many Omnics sitting all together in front of the dismantled ones he fought not so long ago. Their lights started to flicker in unison once again and the interphone started displaying more cackling sounds. They started sounding more and more like a voice until Reaper could finally hear distinct words. « We are not here to kill. We are not here to dominate. We fight for the right to exist. We fight for the right to live. We will not surrender. We will not be enslaved again. Leave our home, now. »
The robots turned around at once and stared at Reaper with blue lights shinning through the glass. He didn't take any more time to respond, he ran away.
When he found Lynx, they were slowly waking up from their trauma. « We leave, now.
- I… haven't finish my mission… must go back.
- I said we leave.
He took them on his shoulder and, to his surprise, the door opened in front of him, leaving him with the night's sky. As he got out, four large mech-like machines were waiting for him. He recognize the blue lights and prepared for the worst. They were all aiming their guns at both of them, but only repeated. « Leave our home, now. »
He ran past them into the desert. He could recognize the campfire they built, but the place had been scorched with bullets and explosions, with metal scrap covering the place. The walk back to Junkertown would be long. In the distance, the Omnium started making strange deep mechanical noise.

* : Lynx Seventeen is a gender-neutral robot that is referred to as « They » or « Them »