[justify][h1]YOU MUST SURVIVE.[/h1]

Alien runes transcribe a booting sequence within her mind, performing diagnostics and status checks until all systems are operational. Well, not [i]all[/i] systems. Some were non-functional, her memory corrupted with all but the barest essentials out of reach. Cyan eyes lit up as she looked at her environment and she recalled the command.

[h2]YOU MUST SURVIVE.[/h2]

That was the command, and it shall be done. But this command had been given without context. [i]Who? What? When? Where? [b]Why?[/b][/i] The answer would be to reach out, to touch upon the noosphere of this world and glean some form of context, but the only reply was the universe’s screams. The din rocked her positronic mind until she deactivated her systems and made the screaming stop. There would be time for that later. For now she must survive.

The man holding a rock was an obstacle to this end, for he looked to her as if he were a gorilla gazing at a coconut. 017 was [i]not[/i] a coconut, and she had no intention of being [i]cracked.[/i] A quick whirr caused her hear to rotate, scanning the wharf for its rats. The number was discontenting, but more then that was the squawking of an avian samurai attempting to play [i]seki-crow.[/i] Charging head-on into the swarm was certainly a strategy, but it was not one she would consider [i]wise.[/i]

017 had a better idea.

Scanning her environment again, the machine searched this time for the flotsam and jetsam of the wharf, scrap items on the ground that even the rats had disregarded. She might have been out of weapons, but 017 was not out of options. A fragment of rebar. Too small to hold up infrastructure, too small to use as a weapon, but not too small for her purposes.

A quick dash and 017 grabbed the rebar, holding it in her right as her left began to change. Components slid, melded, altered, exposing a point resembling the point of an arc welder. She brought it towards the rebar, turning to her compatriots for a moment.

“[color=cyan][b]□□□□-□□□□-□□□□[/b][/color]” The mechanical creature chirped, the only warning to close one’s eyes.

The arc connected.

A blinding light burst forth as the arc melted the fragment of rebar. It was as painful to look at as the sun, and it was just as damaging to the eyes. The damage would not be permanent, but it bought time. An escape? There was a door to one of the wharf warehouses, and though it was not much it was [i]enough.[/i] A barricade against those too poor in power or equipment to blast the door down, which was all that they needed.

017 pointed to the door, running to it in a burst of speed. Hopefully her allies would follow suit — if they were wise enough to not get themselves blinded.[/justify]