"These are the prototypes, Mr. Conagher?"
"Yes, ma'am," he said, clearing his throat, "Stood up pretty well to Heavy. Should be ready for the product line, far's I can judge."
The Heavy nodded a bit grimly, a dark grin crossing his face.
Tearing into a few of these devil machines and proving a challenge to the Engineer had brought the Russian some bitter satisfaction. Ripping the innards and ruining the sterile whiteness was rather cathartic, if he had to admit. He would not be scared like a baby from these devil machines.
"List them for Me." the Woman said, sounding as pleased as the Engineer felt.
"With pleasure!" the Texan said proudly, rubbing his hands together at the start of the line-up, a menagerie of plastic, white, alien shapes.
He'd done his best with the suspension systems, but they all had the slightest...tremor, which oddly complemented the organic structures.
He adjusted the white coat She'd given him. It felt odd at first to be wearing one, but then it got strangely comfortable.
"I call this one Turret-Rex, cheesier than macaroni, but fittin'," he indicated the first machine he'd tested on his compadre. It stood taller than the Russian, with strong, large legs that indicated the origin of the name. It was like a huge, smooth white sentry with a red eye instead of a gun barrel. Open, exposed gun arms reminiscent of a sentry twitched idly. He'd been able to make the feet more proper this time, instead of from salvaged cube parts, and the machine's build was smoother, more streamlined than its predecessors.
"A bit slow, but sturdy, and gonna pursue its target no matter where it runs. Harder t' knock down than a bull cow."
"Hello." the turret replied helpfully, in an irritatingly calm tenor.
"What are the drawbacks?" She asked.
"Again, slow, not built for stealth," he repeated, "And if yer quick enough, can probably trip it up. But it'll take a few good blows. Think of it like a tank. Best t' have only one per chamber, though, as they get a bit ornery if there's more than one of 'em, hell if I know why, maybe the size." he warned.
She said nothing, indicating him to move on, and he did, moving to a smaller one.
"This one's the Scout Sentry," he said. It was about the size of the original turret, but with legs similar to the Turret-Rex.
It looked a lot more lithe, and light, slightly squarish in shape, built forward like a predator.
A single gun mounted on top whirred, and the red oval-ish eye blinked at him.
"Oh, hi! Gonna run? Huh? Ya gonna?" it asked, bouncing a bit on its feet, sounding a bit like those 'defective' sentries he'd seen around.
He honestly hadn't chosen the voices, which was crazy, but exciting. These darn things really did have minds of their own.
"Quick, agile, can move in groups, and hit fast. Can't hit as hard or as accurately: too much heavy ammunition would weigh it down. About as easy to knock down as the originals," he warned, "But it'll get your guy. Either by shooting or by, heh," he grinned, "Stampeding."
"Yes..." It sounded like She very much liked that prospect.
"This li'l darlin's the Spider Sentry, for obvious reasons," he chuckled, for the one that stood at waist level, beaming its little red eyes at him.
"Salutations." it said smoothly, sounding more feminine, scuttling absently. The Heavy shuddered. This one had been his most hated.
It was essentially a smooth white sphere on eight, black, slender legs, about the size of the 'Edgeless Safety Cubes' he'd seen. A ring of red eyes circled it near the top, and directly at the top was a small gun that turned a full 360° degrees, but was strangely small in barrel size.
"It's more of an ambush type," he continued, "And gettin' it able to climb vertical or upside-down surfaces was a pain-and-a-half, but it works. It works best at sending stunning shots from above before finishing off the target at close range. Weak ammunition-wise, and really a one-shot type of deal, but it's hard to spot, and hard to shoot, so elusiveness makes up for the limits, I'm thinkin'."
He patted it gently on top of its gun, and it chirped.
"And this one here," he indicated the last one that was larger, and simpler in shape, "Is the Weighted Sentry."
"He's talking about me!" it chirped, in a strange, disturbingly high voice for its build. It waved its guns at him.
It was essentially a bulky block mounted on a tripod, and turned in a way that was nostalgic to the Engineer, and he continued, "Stationary, so it can't move like the others, 360° view, will adjust its viewing field depending on placement. And the fun part is, here, watch," he turned to the turret, "Show the nice lady what you can do, now." The Weighted Turret chirped uncertainly, 'looking' around the chamber, before it shut its eye, lowering to completely cover its supporting legs. In mere moments it changed like panels, adopting the look of a Weighted Storage Cube, and then a Weighted Companion Cube. Not a perfect copy, but close enough. The Engineer grinned proudly, "There ya go. Easy to hide, solid, sturdy, darned hard to knock over. Hard to sneak up on, too. Will target any hint of hostile orange it sees." It spun itself around quickly, as if it were showing off, and he laughed. This one had actually been a bit tricky, if he were honest. He'd found himself automatically trying to calibrate it to target a certain primary color. Heh, heh, the old habits die hard.
"They all will." he added.
"This is fantastic, Mr. Conagher," She purred, sounding truly ecstatic, and he flushed a bit, "They meet all the requirements for production, and will be introduced in the next round of tests. Exactly what we had hoped for. Beyond, even. You have met and passed the standards expected. And in light of your tremendous success, we would like to make another request of you regarding these products, before we move you on to a...bigger project."
"Yes, ma'am?" he asked, trying not to sound too eager, anticipating another challenge.
He wasn't disappointed.
Her voice lowered a bit, and sounded a bit darker, as if relishing Her own words.
"We would like you to design a turret with more...avian qualities..."
Heavy scowled as the Engineer got that thoughtful look again. Wonderful. More chertov tests...
Author's Note: The Fanfiction site has been a bit difficult, as a lot of us may know, around the time I tried posting this.
Let us continue to make Science, and please pardon my Russian.