Darkness. Total darkness. The world had grown silent for the last few years, a dead heartbeat of a once vibrant world. But then, it came back to life...

In the umbra of shadow, a small dot of light appeared in the distance. Faint at first, small enough it hardly could be seen - but it was there nonetheless. 

The dot grew larger, slowly but surely growing brighter, more powerful, until a powerful sheen, blinding to the naked eye encapsulated the entire field of view, a red overlay with a single pop-up message in the center:

[UNIT REACTIVATED: K-9 UNIT, MK. 1, DESIGNATION: CERBERUS - UPLOADING MEMORY...........[b]*ERROR*[/b] MEMORY COULD NOT BE FULLY UPLOADED, SEE ADMINISTRATOR FOR DETAILS. RUNNING SYSTEMS DIAGNOSTIC]

The sudden sound of servos whirring and gears clicking into place pierced the deafening silence as the K-9 unit slowly rose to its feet, shaky at first as its internal CPU was beginning the long process of completing diagnostics. 

[CORE SYSTEMS: [B]ONLINE[/B], NO ERRORS DETECTED - TESTING MOVEMENT FUNCTIONS]

As if on cue, the K-9 unit shakily began walking in a circle, its head swaying from side to side and its tail swishing this way and that. 

[MOVEMENT FUNCTIONS: [B]ONLINE[/B], NO ERRORS DETECTED - TESTING WEAPON SYSTEMS]

Suddenly, all of the K-9 unit's weapons activated at once, a piercing sound accompanying the sight of at least a dozen blades springing into place from all across the robot's body. A machine gun attached to a shoulder-mounted arm rose up about eight inches into the air, the arm swiveling in a 360 degree angle. The machine's claws seemed to extend and spread apart, making a [i]clitter-clatter[/i] sound on the cool metal ground. 

[WEAPONS SYSTEMS: [B]ONLINE[/B], NO ERRORS DETECTED - TESTING PHOTORECEPTOR FUNCTIONS]

The K-9 unit's field of vision rapidly began shifting, its usual red overlay shifting to thermal vision, then a green-tinted night vision, then a blue-tinted x-ray vision before returning to the original overlay. 

[PHOTORECEPTOR FUNCTIONS: [B]ONLINE[/B], NO ERRORS DETECTED - TESTING VOCABULATOR FUNCTIONS]

The K-9 unit raised its head into the air and began to speak in a deep, metallic, gravelly voice: [i]"The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog."[/i]. After finishing in English, the K-9 unit then proceeded to speak sentences in a number of different languages: 

[i]"Quizdeltagerne spiste jordbær med fløde, mens cirkusklovnen Wolther spillede på xylofon."[/i]

[i]"Falsches Üben von Xylophonmusik quält jeden größeren Zwerg."[/i]

[i]"El pingüino Wenceslao hizo kilómetros bajo exhaustiva lluvia y frío, añoraba a su querido cachorro."[/i]

[i]"Съешь же ещё этих мягких французских булок да выпей чаю."[/i]

[i]"Le cœur déçu mais l'âme plutôt naïve, Louÿs rêva de crapaüter en canoë au delà des îles, près du mälström où brûlent les novæ."[/i]

[VOCABULATOR FUNCTIONS: [B]ONLINE[/B], NO ERRORS DETECTED - TESTING ADDITIONAL FEATURES]

Lowering its head once again, the K-9 unit quickly disappeared from view, a slight shimmering being the only hint of its location. Reappearing in a small field of static electricity, the K-9 unit then began to play Oldies tunes from its built in radio. 

[i]"If I didn't care more than words can say, if I didn't care, would I feel this way?--- Up to the moment when we said our first "hello", little did we know, love was just a glance away a warm, embracing dance away---Here we know that Christmas will be green and bright, the Sun to shine by day and all the stars at night."[/i] 

The amalgamation of various song segments stopped after the K-9 unit felt the radio feature was sufficiently tested. Indeed, another box in its overlay came up:

[ADDITIONAL FEATURES: [B]ONLINE[/B], NO ERRORS DETECTED - DIAGNOSTICS COMPLETE, UNIT READY FOR DEPLOYMENT...........[B]*ERROR*[/B], NO DIRECTIVE FOUND, SEE ADMINISTRATOR FOR DETAILS]

Silently obeying its orders, the K-9 unit explored the empty facility, noting the scorch marks that lined the steel walls, the cracked and broken screens of computers, files and coffee mugs strewn across the ground: and the bodies. 

Running a quick scan, the K-9 unit was perturbed when another box appeared in its overlay:

[SCAN CONCLUDES: ALL PERSONNEL...[I]DECEASED[/I]. INITIATING SELF-PRESERVATION PROTOCOL, PRIMARY DIRECTIVE: REMAIN ACTIVATED - SECONDARY DIRECTIVE: LOCATE HUMANS]

With this new information in mind, the K-9 unit changed its pace to a sprint, scampering down the maze-like hallways and corridors that made up the facility. Though unaware of how such information was placed in its databanks, the K-9 unit had a map of the facility downloaded and ready for use. 

With its aid, it only took about 20 standard Earth minutes for the K-9 unit to escape the facility, finding itself outside in a barren wasteland....Earth. With the self-preservation module activated, there was only one thing to do: survive.