Near Gizoid Base the Hurst crew were on a platform with Dive and Bark. Sally went up to them "Dive, Bark, let's go! Move it! We're behind schedule, Dawn Squadron. I want those fighters launched and at the training coordinates by 062" they both ran. Tex crossed his arms "Don't understand why I can't come along" "Tex, you're my chief of security. I need you to stay behind and mind the base" "Oh, Sally, come on. Let me tag along. You can always use an extra pair of hands. Just don't leave me on my own here. I'll be bored to death". Sally smirked "You won't be on your own. You have G-merl and Fixit to keep you company" "Like I said, bored to death". Sonic laughed "We'll be back before you know it". Wave saluted "Carry on, Captain Tex". They all entered the Hurst as Fixit came over "Did they seriously leave you in charge of this facility?" "Something wrong with that?" "Well, I just always assumed you were more of a lift heavy things and punch anything in your way type. You know, a grunt". Tex growled causing Fixit to nod "Precisely. Now, what exactly do you do?". G-merl beeped angering Tex "What'd he say?" "He said we've never really figured that out". Tex grunted "Don't you have something to do?" "Actually, while everyone is off practicing, I intend to take this opportunity to conduct a thorough inventory of the base's munitions supply depot. Either one of you may assist me". G-merl beeped "I'm with you, G-merl. Counting crates? Not exactly my idea of fun" "Is that because you never learned to count? I can teach you" "What! No! Uh, never mind. I don't have to stay here and listen to this. I'll be in the command centre". He walked away "Doing what?" "Commanding!".
He entered the command centre where a human officer walked up to him "Captain" "Anything to report?" "We've been tracking meteors impacting on the surface nearby. We think one of them knocked out a perimeter sensor in sector six. Should I send a unit". Tex saw this as an opportunity "No, I'll go check it out. G-merl, you're with me". G-merl beeped "Oh, you don't want to go? Fine. Then you can stay here and help Fixit with his supply inventory". Fixit then arrived "G-merl, there you are. We have a lot of inventory to calculate immediate. Wait. Where are you going". G-merl followed Tex who started chuckling "Yeah, that's what I thought".
They were on a speeder and arrived at the broken sensor and next to it was a dead spider. Tex climbed out with a replacement sensor "Well, I don't see a meteor, but it looks like spiders had a go at it. Easy enough to fix". He set up the sensor but then saw that there was something under the spider corpse. Tex went over and lifted the spider of and saw a silver robot shaped like a tea kettle "Huh. It's some kind of robot". He lifted it up with some struggle "Oh, this thing's heavy". He placed it back down "It's not one of ours. How'd it get here? Doesn't look Imperial. Let's take it back to base, see if we can figure out where it came from". G-merl stepped forward and kicked the robot "Course you disagree and wanna trash it. Well, I suppose, since Sally left you in charge… Oh, wait, she didn't".
Fixit was walking past the containers "No, no, no, no. This is all wrong. Rations in munitions section? Torpedoes with detonators? My maker! This is a logistics nightmare. Say what you like about the Empire, there were organized. Mostly because of me, of course". He then saw Tex and G-merl arrive with the robot "Hey, Inventory" he placed it down annoying Fixit "Excuse me. This is a supply area, not a trash compactor". Tex crossed his arms "We found this busted-up robot in the wasteland" "It looks like an older module. I'll give it enough power for a system restart. What should we call it in the meantime?". Tex shrugged "Heavy". Fixit attached a generator to Heavy and flipped a switch. Heavy then sat up, "Hey, it worked" Tex said, "Of course it worked". Tex cleared his throat "Uh… hello. Can you tell me where you come from?" "Unknown" "Its memory systems are damaged". Heavy stood up and looked around "Armoury and munitions storage area. Proton torpedoes, 47. Blaster recharges, 820. Thermal detonators, 62 crates. Iron mines, 32". Tex grinned "Did he… Did he just scan and inventory this entire area? Ha. He's better at your job than you are" "I seriously doubt that. However, he appears to be a logistics robot and could be useful as my assistant". Tex nodded "Seems harmless enough. I guess we could take in another stray". Heavy turned to Tex "Species- Lizard. Rank- unknown". Tex saluted "Captain Tex at your service". Heavy copied the salute, Tex chuckled "Fast learner, this one". Heavy then looked to G-merl "Gizoid. Obsolete mechanism. No longer in production". Tex laughed "Now I really like him". A voice came over the PA "Captain Tex to command centre for a priority message" "Keep an eye on my new friend, huh?".
He entered the command centre where a rabbit a falcon was waiting "Sir, we have a message from O'Brian" "Let's hear it". The symbol appeared over the holo-unit "The Empire has begun to deploy recon robot. These Infiltrators sweep the Outer Zones worlds for Freedom Fighter bases. They are extremely dangerous but can appear harmless while in stealth mode. One recently failed to report in. Be advised if it remains out of contact the Empire will come after it and soon. O'Brian out". A scary idea entered Tex's mind.
Fixit led G-merl and Heavy through the storage area "Make sure you categorize every crate in this section. Oh, this is marvellous. You and I are going to get along famously. We'll have this base in tip-top shape before the Hurst returns". Heavy stared at him "Hurst". Tex arrived behind them "Fixit, step away from that robot!" "Hurst? Freedom Fighters". Fixit and G-merl walked over to Tex "What exactly is happening" "That thing might be a recon bot". Heavy turned to them "Designation, Imperial Infiltrator bot EXD-Nine". Tex shot at it with his sword but it had no effect. Heavy tacked him to the ground and tried to punch him but Tex avoided them. He pushed him off, but Heavy's move opened revealing a laser which he fired. Tex and the others ran for cover and managed to shoot one of Heavy's arms off. Heavy then retreated, G-merl beeped "He says I told you so" Fixit told Tex causing him to roll his eyes. Tex examined the hand "I managed to damage it but it's on the run now. Ah, we can't let that thing report what it saw back to the Empire" "We must alert Captain Acorn". Tex shook his head "No time. Sally put me in charge and I'm not gonna let her down. The robot's leaking fluid. We can track it". They followed the trail across the storage area until finding a destroyed gizoid. Fixit examined it "This poor gizoid's power core has been completely drained. And several key components have been removed" "That thing must be repairing itself. Trail ends here. G-merl, think you can track it?". G-merl beeps "G-merl says its power supply is not registering on his scanners.
The power it consumed from this robot was likely enough for it's needs. It may still be looking for more" "Well, that gives me an idea" "Really, you can have those?". Tex turned to G-merl "You lure it towards me, and I'll blast it" "May I remind you that we are in an area housing high-explosive munitions? Perhaps not the best place to be firing blasters. We were lucky enough the first time". Tex grunted "You could have told me that before" "I just told you now" "Okay, so I'll just grab it. Get it on the ground and shut it down". Fixit sighed "Grab it? That's your plan?" "Yes. And if I do, can you shut it down?" "Of course, I can". Tex nodded "Alright. G-merl, get to it". G-merl ran through the storage area eventually hearing a noise. He went round a corner and saw Heavy remaining pieces form a broken buzz bomber. G-merl ran and the bomber chased after them. He led it below a railing where Tex jumped onto it and strike it with his sword, but it only scratched him. The two fought but Heavy's strength was too much and Tex was taking a beating. Tex eventually managed to get behind it and hold it to the ground "Fixit, shut it down!". Fixit went over and plugged his had into Heavy's head "Standby" "Standby!?" Tex yelled as he struggled to hold the fighting robot down. "Got it" Heavy shut down "What do you know? Your plan actually worked". Tex pushed the Heavy off him "Of course it did!". G-merl scanned it and beeper "Fixit, tell me its good news. It'd be a good change of pace" "G-merl can detect no long-range communications equipment, which means the Empire doesn't know we're here".
Tex sighed in relief "Well, that's something. It must have a ship somewhere nearby. What's the bad news?". G-merl opened Heavy's mouth revealing a black and red bomb robot that was counting down "The bomb is going to vaporize the entire base" Fixit said casually. Tex grabbed his head in shock "How much time" "Twenty seconds" "Any ideas!?". G-merl opened a slot on his right hand and blew a cold gas onto the bomb freezing it "G-merl's bought us time. We can mov it a safe distance form the base". Tex shook hi head "O'Brian said if this bot doesn't report back to the Empire, they'll come here looking for it" Are you suggesting we allow it to return to the Empire, with a memory bank filled with Freedom Fighter secrets?". Tex thought Can't let it detonate. Can't let it go back. Can we get inside the bot's programming?" "I believe I can" "Can you wipe its memory". Fixit shook his head "No, it's memory core is protected. Any attempt will most likely trigger detonation and I can't disarm the warhead. It just a matter of when it'll explode". A grin formed on Tex's face "Or a matter of where. What if we send it back to eh Empire still ticking? Can you set the bomb to restart the countdown when it reconnects to the Imperial network?". Fixit understood "So it'll explode before the data can be uploaded and the Empire won't know which robot it was. A clever idea. You were likely to have at least one. I shall turn it back to factory settings and initiate return to base protocols. It should leave peacefully". Once he was done, they all took cover as Heavy sat up and looked around before walking away "It's leaving the base. Good job. Let's make sure it gets home".
They followed Heavy back to a pod in the outskirts. He entered the pod and a small dish extended. Fixit watched "That's a long-range transmitter. It's going to contact the Empire" "Not if I can help it". Tex took out his sword and aimed at the dish before firing a shot destroying it "Now it should head home, right?" "If it follows its programming". They then watched as the pod took off and left the atmosphere "If it makes it back and I didn't correctly program it-" "Hey, we may not like each other but you've always done your job" "Well, what ever the outcome, you performed admirably, Captain" he saluted. Tex sighed "A lots happened today. Not sure if I can deal with you and me starting to get along on top of everything else" "Hmm. Agreed".
The pod returned to the Imperial Scarship. Two officers examined Heavy "Looks like the missing unit" "Well let's plug it in and see what we got". Heavy suddenly sat up and opened its mouth revealing the bomb which started counting down again "Is that a countdown?" "Oh, no". On the opposite Scarship Infinite was talking to an officer when the other Scarship blew up "What just happened? Report" "I believe it was a proton warhead detonation, sir". Infinite was glad he was wearing a mask because he couldn't help but smirk.
The Hurst returned where Tex and Fixit were waiting. Sally and the others exited the ship "Okay, what happened that you called me back on day one of the exercise?". Tex laughed nervously "Well, it may be nothing. We, uh… We think we've got it all under control. But just in case-" "Incoming message, priority" "Hold that thought". As they all walked G-merl beeped "You had nothing to do with what?" Sonic asked. They made it to the command centre where O'Brian's symbol appeared on the holo-unit "I can only assume you found and reprogrammed the lost Infiltrator I warned you of. Well, as you no doubt planned, the robot did self-destruct on its return to base. I don't know how you pulled it off, but you have my congratulations. O'Brian out". Wave looked to Tex "Uh, what was that about?" "Uh… It's kind of a long story". Fixit crossed his arms "Which I can recall every detail of. It all began when Captain Tex brought the robot back". Tex covered his mouth and nervously chucked as the others stared at him suspiciously.
Infinite entered the bridge of a Scarship without his mas where Mogul was examining a hologram of different planets "How did this happen, Agent Infinite?" "I suspect the Freedom Fighters captured a unit in the field and reprogrammed it to self-destruct upon its return to base. Quite ingenious, really". Mogul smirked "I'm inclined to agree" "You seem in surprisingly good spirits, considering this loss" "Loss, you say? Mmm, the Freedom Fighters may have protected the location of their base for now, but in doing so, they have narrowed my search". Mogul pressed a button, and more than half the planet holograms disappeared "Before today, they could have been hiding in any of a thousand systems. But now… Now I know they almost certainly on one of the 94 planets surveyed by my Infiltrators. The Freedom Fighters have won the battle, but the war will be ours".