Sharp smells of oil and ozone blanketed the dark hold of the dropship. From the few points of blue and orange light a normal eye could have made out the shapes of armored limbs and heavy armaments. With your cybernetic optics, you easily saw the five "Advanced Peace Enforcer" units that you commanded and controlled. While you held steadily to your crash cage, your APEs were strapped tight into their cradles. They had to be so the nimble drosphip could turn on a dime while flying within the dense cityscape. Police Craft 419 was doing just that, performing hairpin turns around the myriad of skyscrapers and skyways that cluttered the airspace of what over fifty million people called “home”.
You and your team were heading for the South Side of Port City this evening for your latest assignment, but this one was going to be special since this outing would be the first after a major patch to the APEs’ software. This new patch was big enough of a deal that you spent all day in Port City Police HQ with your APEs as the techies tended to the armored bots, following their technical jargon as best as you could. Beyond the superficial identity friend foe updates and electronic warfare upgrades, the code monkeys at HQ were all giddy about a slew of new software that, in essence, gave each of the individual APEs its own personality. Before this patch, the APEs had a uniform synthesized voice and the same speech pattern. The units all acted in the same manner and the only way a team leader could tell the APEs apart was from their designations, which was verbally stated by each unit every time it spoke. After hundreds of assignments and spending thousands of hours with your APEs, to say this lack of individuality was grating would be the biggest understatement you could ever hear in your years of service. That was why as soon as this “personality patch” was announced by PCP’s research branch, every APEs’ team leader was chomping at the bit to get it, hence why you spent all day at HQ in line. But lo, you were the first APE team leader to get an assignment after this personality patch. This stroke of luck, or cursed luck as some of the older PCP members told you, left you excited and anxious in your crash seat.
Your inner radio activated and you were connected to Police Craft 419’s pilot, who calmly gave the warning you were both waiting and dreading for,
“One minute to touchdown.”
Nodding uselessly you responded, “Understood, booting up APEs now.”
“Fingers crossed!” joked the pilot.
“Yeah, yeah,” you dismissed, but some of your anxiousness bled through your voice as your cyberized brain keyed the power of your five APEs. Within seconds they all charged up and diagnostics played over your eyes. This time you paid close attention to the lines of code, but so far the APEs seemed to power on just like they did thousands of times before. One by one the armored bots were fully powered up and were ready to be deployed. This was done through text and a part of you was glad nothing catastrophic happened yet, like them all suddenly screaming in agony or something. The pilot called again,
“Touch down; ten seconds. Everything okay back there?”
“So far, so good.” You answered, too engrossed in your diagnostics to elaborate.
“Excellent, opening doors.”
Motors whined and dull light pierced into the dropship’s hold. Your digital eyes adjusted to the glare immediately and you saw the sullen landscape of Port’s City’s South Side: dilapidated block apartments made from pitted concrete and rusted steel. When 419 touched down on the asphalt street, the APEs’ straps retracted and your crash cage released you. Then the APEs unpacked themselves. Arms and legs as thick as a bodybuilder’s torso straightened out and planted onto the deck. Without saying anything the police bots exited 419’s hold, walking exactly in the manner their namesake implied. You followed your team out and into the police cordon that was erected by the small platoon of patrol officers waiting for you. The oldest and gruffest of the officers approached you and you asked,
“What’s the situation here?”
If the officer had a cig you’d imagine he would have taken a big drag from it before explaining, “Three delinquents did a string of car robberies today, ended up running from us and invading this block here.” The man pointed with his thumb over his shoulder at a two-story apartment complex whose parking lot was blocked off by the cordon. “We got everyone evacuated from there, but the perps holed up in one of the upper rooms and are shooting at anyone trying to get near ‘em.”
“Weapons?”
“A two-two-three and a pump at least. Probably a couple of handguns as backups, but we’re not sure. One was spotted with augmeted legs so at least one cyborg. Nothing your APEs can’t handle, though.”
Police Craft 419 lifted off in a storm of dust and pebbles. When the dropship disappeared from view you looked at your team of APEs and noticed how they hadn't moved from their positions after exiting 419. Odd since APEs followed their team leader, but what was even stranger was the fact that each APE was looking around. Each unit independently checked its surroundings, observing the cops, looking down the street, casing the apartment complex the three perps had holed up in. The bright blue optics that were the units’ primary visual sensors had suddenly became very expressive.
The older officer stood beside you and whispered, “We’ve heard about that new personality patch. Did these guys get it?”
You nodded and whispered back, “Yeah. The geeks at HQ said they tested it thoroughly so it shouldn’t be a problem.” You sighed, “Well, let me introduce them, I guess.”
The two of you walked over to what you deemed as your second in command. While you had control over the whole team, this APE that you designated as “Two” would lead a fireteam whenever you had to split the team up. Two turned its head to look between you and the older officer, and that moment became the second time in your life that you felt nervous around your APEs. After taking a deep breath you looked up at your second and asked in a command voice,
“Two, status?”
The APE’s optics shut off for an instant, perfectly mimicking the act of blinking, and replied in a calm tone, “Green, sir.”
Now that was a voice you weren’t expecting. Instead of the uniform sythesized voice, it seemed that Two had randomly chosen to use a