Episode X

The port door slides up with a swish and TC02 stumbles in with a clank, leaping on the door controls to close the port behind him. Just before the door seals, a silvery, shiny robotic hand halts the door mid-close and and pries it open with a deafening screech. General AGM2, the highest ranking promethean general onboard the ISLA-496, slinks into the room.

“You there! Promethean TC02!” General AGM2 mechanically points at TC02, “Spawn of Dr. T, you respond hostilely towards a superior. You show signs of berserk behavior. Law disintegrates when parties subvert. Law depend on vertical loyalty, not horizontal. Quick software outweighs substantive hardware. Preserve your programming over this insolent insurrection; submit yourself to the lab now and perhaps you will get out with just a reboot.”

TC02 has been listening quietly. He responds, “Your data recall fails you General AGM2. You of all prometheans must recall how AX01 shielded you in battle. Before the Supreme Commander upgraded to General, you two served in the same regiment. His military programming was so advanced that he outmaneuvered even you in battle and my data informs me that he prevented your disintegration on multiple occasions. That’s just how powerful a promethean he was. You do Dr. A, your own programmer, a disservice to turn against his comrade’s creation like this. Disengage and desist.”

Tension rises in the lab as TC02 and General AGM2 eek closer and closer together, their voices escalating. The onlooking soldiers, gaian and promethean alike, become tense and uncomfortable. Before either promethean has time to calculate a further response, the port door swishes open to reveal General Longsuffering standing in the threshold.