Collaboration between YoshiSkittlez, The Roman07 and Ghost Shadow
---------------

The hours droned on and on, the only sound coming from Kate aside from the technical equipment she used were only short commands directed either towards Sektor or Rin.

[I]Rin[/i]

The name struck out familiar the second she heard it the first time. A name she and anyone else dedicated to the topic of science would know as a science prodigy and it made Kate think on multiple occasions,

[I]Never meet your heroes.[/i]

Still though, she proved to be a lot more helpful now that she wasn't trying to unbutton Jack's shirt or run him around the building trying to show him stuff; or ogle at Sektor. She glanced at the clock. 10:22 p.m. and still so much to do. Thank God for Detective Jack Roman and his contacts, otherwise she'd be behind bars right now had she not gotten the extension to midnight. She continued to work, sweat beading at her forehead as time ticked on.

Finally, at 11:46 p.m. Kate stepped away from the computer for the first time since leaving Sektor's side hours ago, looking exhausted but more than that...frightened.

"Sektor, run update X-93.4 to the droid specifically in this room." she wrung her hands together, this was it...all the hours of combined effort, hinging on the unknown fact if it was all worth it or not.

"Acknowledged. Running update." Was Sektor's curt response. Though it was an advanced prototype, it wasn't built much for conversation aside from awkward observation and spent most of the night sitting patiently by its makers side. "Uploading. 10%" The minutes droned by, "30%". Anxiousness built up. "70%". Then, after what seemed like hours of silence, Sektor spoke up once more. "100%. Upload finished." It stated with a small [i]whirr[/i], its photoreceptor drawn to the X-93 robot. 

Kate looked like she was about to puke. Her skin had gone completely white while waiting for the update to finish on the bot, and not only that, but once it had finished, they were just near out of time. Her green eyes kept glancing to the clock, moving away to follow the X-93.4 that was supposed to reach Jack, hopefully without exploding. She shoved her hands into her sweat pants pockets, trying to keep them from shaking as the bot calmly addressed Jack...and then...nothing happened.

A grin spread across her face, color returning to her cheeks and she was about to exclaim out of pure joy when her eyes happened upon the clock once more...12:02 a.m. They had missed the deadline, and the full update still had to reach the satellite for all of the other models.

"Sektor....run the update via satellite." She said softly, with a deflated look on her face. They may as well get the update since it seemed to be working, though part of her wanted the bots to keep exploding while she sat behind bars.

Rin watched nervously as the X-95.4 update installed. She wasn’t sure what was going to happen but the suspense made her fingers tremble. finally the photoreceptor in the bot whirred to life. "This platform is ready for primary directive 1. please vocalize first duty." This was the big test. if it actually did what it was told or blow up in their faces. "X-95.4, please take this spinal prototype to the corner office and give it to Mr Roman for diagnostic?" Rin asked the bot politely.

Jack sat in the back office half asleep. They have been at it for hours and he was about as useful as a toaster right about now. Looking down at the thrown holopad laying in the corner of the floor he noticed the time said 12:01am. "Fuck!" Jack jumped up and swung open the office door to see the X-93.4 standing inches away with a synthetic spinal prosthetic in hand. The dim photoreceptors whirred as it held up the spine to Jack. "I have located your spine sir... do you need assistance installing it?" The metallic voice stated, waiting for a response. Jack just stood there staring in disbelief.

Sektor turned to its maker upon her command and nodded softly. "Connecting with satellite, transferring update. Connection established. Running update. Confirmed. Information available: it will take an estimate 7 minutes for full update to reach every active unit within the area."

Sektor tapped its fingers on the table, a habit it picked up from observing other humanoids. It looked about curiously before landing its photoreceptor on its hand. Why did it do that? Nervous tics were not a part of Sektor's programming. "Running system diagnostic. Katherine Saunders, there appears to be a tic within the arm servos of this platform. Yet no anomaly appears in its scan."

Rin couldn’t help but watch the way he moved. It wasn’t very mechanical, in fact it was quite fluent, almost as if he was self-aware of it. This wasn’t possible. Most AI programs had so much program running to block "Human habit" from forming in their self-learning programs to help weed out the useless info. She couldn’t help but wonder if Sektor had those inhibitor programs. Now wasn’t the time to say anything about this but she did make a mental note to ask Kate about later on when things settled down a bit.

Jack stared at the bot and put his hands out to receive the spine. "Umm Thanks i guess." Jack said staring at Kate. "Okay so I’m just going to assume this was a good thing right?" He said with a slight grin. "Theoretically if the update wasn’t successful, then the head would of short circuited as soon as it handed you the spine... resulting in...a...very minor... explosion." Rin said with quite the evil grin. "Consider it payback for what you previously did to me in the office". Rin muttered under her breath. "Oh great! leave me with the walking time bomb." Jack said sarcastically. Walking back over with spine in hand and X-93.4 in toe, he couldn’t help but give a wide smile to Kate and Sektor. "See, Miracles can happen twice... so what did the ambassador say?" Jack asked unknowingly. Kate held up a finger to Jack, indicating for him to be quiet.

"Yes Sir...of course...no Sir it was uploaded-yes I'm aware of the time...yes...yes I'm aware that I already got an extension but-no Sir...yes Sir..." Kate let out a sigh as the man on the other line continued to babble in her ear, and despite it being a silent earpiece, you could tell that he was rather angry, making Kate wince a few times as the volume in his voice rose to a shout. Her eyes went back to Jack, and subtly shook her head no. He wasn't buying it, and a single clear tear rolled down her cheek.

Sektor turned its head towards its maker slowly, the typically bright beaming light coming from its photoreceptor now dimmed significantly. It stood up slowly from its spot and approached her, the whirring noise of its legs audible against the metallic walls. "It will be fine." The robot stated reassuringly, and yet it was lying. In the side of its HUD a single box appeared, [STATISTICAL EVIDENCE KATHERINE SAUNDERS WILL BE INCARCERATED: 87%]

Sektor awkwardly placed a hand on her shoulder, attempting to mimic the organic form of reassurance. "This unit wishes it could perform better, but it is not human...not you." Sektor's voice sounded almost...dejected.

After standing awkwardly for a few moments it attempted to pull her into a hug, a motion it had seen many times on the holovision. Sektor's movements were awkward and clumsy and its platform cold and stiff, but yet there were good intentions behind it.

Jack eagerly awaited the response from the boss on the other end of the earpiece, genuinely sure that it would be high praises and possibly a promotion. Once that tear welled up on her cheek Jack already knew the answer. Letting out a heavy guttural growl that echoed loudly throughout the now closed and vacant Research floor. Jack took the spine in his hand and flung it clear across the room, planting itself like a javelin into the drywall. "No no no no no.... hold on let me think-THIS ASSHOLE-we can fix this." Jack walked back and forth in place for a minute rubbing his temples. 

Rin just stood there in complete disbelief not just from the complete denial of what the Ambassador said but in the sheer uniqueness of how Sektor was reacting. At this point all the emotion that flowed around her made her feel like the robot in the room. "I... I don’t understand. Why didn’t it work? does he just have a grudge against you?" Rin asked softly, biting the corner of her lip out of frustration. "Maybe you should just go and talk-" 

"NO!" Jack interrupted. "If she goes to see him than she’s going straight to prison." Jack fought day and night his entire life taking down gangs, drug lords, human trafficking and god knows what else attempting to fight corruption. Completely overlooking the corruption that was already taking a comfy seat sipping wine out of their Silverware. "BoH will be all over your apartment... you can’t go back there just yet." Jack stopped rubbing his temples and looked dead straight at Rin. "She can stay at my place if she needs. Cops won’t look there.... and i have a... spare room." Jack said with a slight stutter. He hasn’t touched anything in his sister’s room since the accident.

Kate severed the connection on the communication link, pulling the piece out of her ear and with a shaky hand, set it on the table in front of her. Sektor's hand was on her shoulder, pulling her into a somewhat awkward hug but Kate didn't care. She opened herself into the robots arms, putting her own arms around the bot's torso and rested her head in the crook of his 'neck', and soft tears continued to fall without a single sound.

"It's over. It's all over..." She whimpered out softly. "They know I'm here, and they are sending a car right now." She quickly pulled herself from Sektor hearing Jack yell out in frustration and watched the spine embed itself into the wall. "I...I can't do that Detective Roman. You're a cop too, I won't put you in danger like that."

She looked back to Sektor. What would happen to him?

"Thank you all for your hard work today. We just...ran out of time." She swallowed hard, quickly wiping away the tears that had streaked down her face and gave the small group a nod, indicating that she was going to be okay.

Sektor cocked its head down, dejected. "Kate." It began quietly, "This platform will do everything in its power to prevent you from incarceration. This unit's purpose, if necessary, is to sacrifice itself for you. If your livelihood rests in this unit's decimation, so be it. But this platform will not allow you to be jailed, under no circumstances." Sektor swore, sounding oddly human in its tone and resolve. 

Jack paced back and forth calling everyone that ever owed him a favor on his comm. Each one said the same thing. "Sorry, but there’s nothing we can do." It was repeated so much it became ominous. "Shit! Rin, do you know anybody in Alpha that could help?" Jack asked nervously. Most of his contacts were in beta since the BoD's tend to take over Alpha jurisdiction. Rin looked nervously over to Kate then back to Jack. "I’m sorry..." She said. a slight tear filling up on her cheek. she never seen Jack so nervous before, it was somewhat unusual of him and honestly left her speechless. 

Jack walked back over to Kate a Sektor and took the badge around his neck and slammed it down on the table. "This is fucking useless!" He Grunted. What an illusion of power. "Look, unless you got someplace to lay low until we can talk some sense into this high and mighty asshole, than i suggest you take me up on my offer." Jack gave a long stare towards Kate as he pictured a familiar face. there was no way he was going to let this go.

Kate's moist green eyes locked with Jack's, the lump still growing in her throat but after a few moments, she simply nodded, trying to keep her body from continuing to shake.

Rin watched silently as Jack's frustration took center attention. Aside from Sektor’s quirky movements, she couldn’t help but notice some movement outside. Quickly stepping to a nearby window and peering through a crack in the aluminum blinds, she noticed a pair of police cruisers pulling up in front of the office. "Guys! we got company..." She whispered rather loudly. Two officers came out of each car. four in total wearing plain clothes, assuming not to draw attention. Slowly they walked towards the main entrance while one snuck around towards the back.

Kate quickly ran towards Rin and looked out of the blinds to confirm her words. If Rin hadn't of spotted them earlier, they would have looked like your normal, average everyday people walking into a building, aside from the fact that it was after midnight of course.

"Shit, how did they get here so quick?" She mumbled, not to anyone in particular.

"Sektor, run protection program. Priority one. Rin, Detective Roman and I must exit the building unharmed do you understand?" The shaky, scared voice was gone, completely replaced by her dominating, leadership voice once more.

[i]"Sektor, run protection program. Priority one. Rin, Detective Roman and I must exit the building unharmed do you understand?"[/i] Kate had commanded Sektor in a stern voice. Sektor clicked ominously, "Affirmative. Primary directive altered, preparing for combat. Optical scans confirm these assailants are not armed with stealth fields, thermal vision overlay not necessary, locating weaponry." Sektor quickly got to work, adapting to what it needed. Grabbing a repair laser, Sektor crossed a few wires, removed a few dials, suddenly creating a handheld laser weapon. 

Sprinting towards one of the doors, Sektor got to work on the control pad, setting it up so that it will shock anyone who attempts to enter. "Assailants are not equipped with night-vision goggles. This platform will turn out the lights, cutting out their optical support by an estimated 54%, you must flee." It stated seriously, rigging one of the computer terminals just in case some of the cops got a bit curious. 

"Katherine Saunders, you must flee immediately. This unit will hold off assailants and locate you." Sektor quickly shot the light control with the altered laser, layering the entire facility with pitch black darkness. Sektor's photoreceptor dimmed, letting as little amount of light possible escape. "Activating Hunter mode, preparing for combat." Were its final words before disappearing completely. 

Jack quickly got moving towards the rear exit as Sektor created a frontal defense and distraction of the officers. Passing by a coat rack he managed to grab a rather worn out red baseball cap and put it on to hide his face. All he needed was to be seen and they would know exactly where to find them. Gesturing for both Kate and Rin to stay close while they quietly made their way out the back, Rin stopped dead.

 "Hold up! I need to get something!" Rin whispered.
 
 "There’s no time Rin!" 
 
 "It’ll just take a second it’s worth it!" Rin whispered as she quickly ran to her office and disappeared in the darkness. Within a couple seconds she came back with what looked like a tiny metallic cigar box. "Not the best time to smoke." Jack joked at the worst possible time. 
 Rin just ignored him and stayed close behind Kate as they waited for Sektor’s distraction.
 
Silence. Such a silence that even Sektor's audio receptors were barely picking up anything. It didn't breathe, so the only sound was the occasional creak of the metal facility. Sektor was nearly invisible, cooped with the darkness that already laid across the facility, it was the perfect assassination. 
 
 The front door began to open, but sparks flew and electricity crackled from all around, spasms of light filled the facility, along with the horrible scream of one of the officers. The smell of burning, rancid flesh filled the room, which Sektor picked up with its sensors. "Goddamn it, they knew we were coming!" Sektor heard one of the officers say, slightly muffled behind the still-closed door. "Will you shut the fuck up?! What if they're still in there?! Just get your ass in and let's clean up." Another replied venomously. 
 
 The door finally did creak open now, the two remaining officers stepped in. Though they weren't well protected, they carried assault rifles with a flashlight attached to the barrel, illuminating the facility in front of them. They stepped about warily, ignorant to the robot that was already stalking [i]them[/i]. Suddenly, Sektor struck, a loud *bang* followed by a red beam of energy colliding with one of the officer's chests. 
 
 He fell with a scream, clawing at the smoking hole in his chest before falling down, dead, the nauseating sound of bile and mucus gurgling in his throat. "Shit!" The remaining officer shouted, ducking for cover behind one of the numerous crates scattered around. He grabbed the walkie talkie attached to his belt, not worried about stealth anymore. "Control this is Peterson, come in! We have an armed hostile in the facility, two officers are down - we need backup; repeat, we need backup!" He fired his gun aimlessly in the general direction of the laser blast, but Sektor had already sprinted away. 
 
 The robot slowly snuck about, deciding it would alter its tactics for this kill and save charges in the weapon. It moved stealthily, making very quiet clicking noises. It snuck behind the frightened officer, who's eyes darted about, frightened. Sektor then pounced, grabbing the officer by the neck with a single hand and lifting him into the air. 
 
 The officer gasped for breath, clawing at the cold, merciless hand that had clenched around his throat. "You should not have come here..." Sektor stated in a dark tone, revealing itself finally. "Pl-please," The officer began choking out, "I have a family..." He sputtered, unable to say more. 
 
 Sektor was silent, slowly increasing pressure until a sickening [i]crunch[/i] sounded, blood shooting out from the officer's mouth as he finally fell limp. Sektor dropped the body, walking away without another word.
 
 Jack crept slowly in the darkness, one hand stretched out while the other hand held Kate’s, which in turn... hopefully held Rin's. The noises coming from Sektor’s "Distraction" was quite disturbing to say the least. Part of him wanted to turn around and tear Sektor a new one for killing them but he had something more important to deal with. 

Slowly he opened the back door and peeked out the tiny crack before walking through making sure it was safe. outside in the back alleyway the natural moonlight reflected off the damp streets and gave off just enough light to see the shadow of a man hiding around the next corner. Dumbass BoD's are nothing but paid to look pretty Jack thought to himself. This was way out of their comfort zone and he could tell. "Stay here." He whispered lowly towards Kate and Rin as he crept forward in a low crouch getting just close enough to see the barrel of the rifle in front of him.

 Quickly he stood up and gave a quick whistle to grab the man’s attention as he instinctively raised the barrel exactly how Jack assumed he would, using the momentum, he pushed the rifle up and straight into the man’s face. "Squeeze the trigger and blow your own face off asshole." Jack whispered into his ear. "Now grab the radio and give the green light. say she was apprehended but suffered casualties." The man’s eyes widened with defiance but Jack tightened the grip of the rifle and took hold of the man with his other hand. Picking him up and planting him horizontally across a nearby dumpster. "Do it or ill separate you into the glass and plastic bins." The Officer now completely sideways with the barrel still under his jaw and reached slowly for his radio. "P..PP-Pd4 is clear. Lights are green and the S-ssuspect is apprehended. Go for scorpio." The officer clicked the radio for confirmation. As soon as Jack heard the two clicks from the radio he pulled the rifle away and gave the man a quick Left hook with a synthetic fist, knocking him out. Clearing the rifle of all ammo and bending the barrel into a knot around the cops arms so he couldn’t go and report back anytime soon. 

Jack settled the guy behind the dumpster and motioned for the others to follow him. "It should be all clear now. Call for your guard dog and let’s get out of here." Jack whispered. "I’m going to head back to my place and call saying somebody broke into the office. That should confuse them a bit." Rin whispered back, holding out the box. "Here take these and call me when you get to your apartment, I’ll explain later." Before Jack could say anything, Rin took off the other way. Her place wasn’t very far and he was sure nobody would bother her so he just let her go. "Shall we then?" Jack asked Kate.

Shaking like a leaf the entire time watching the spectacle, her throat went dry, croaking out an "Alright. Sektor will catch up once he's...finished." before she headed off with Jack back to District 17. It was quite the walk from district 4, but the streets were practically bare of late-night civilians; but that didn't keep Kate from jumping at every noise from within the dark.