The Rise Of A Porter

Back in the workshop...

Arnold was still tinkering around the sentry, giving it final touches before he began testing it. After debating for a while, he installed a 'heat sensor' in the sentry, enabling the AI to automatically assess the situation and counterattack on its own without any outside interference.

The AI itself was performing well despite being only a low levelled one. Arnold had quite high hopes for the sentry. He had achieved his goal of making an affordable yet deadly weapon.

"Alright," He stood up and brushed the dust off his pants, "time to test it out... Light up, SG-69"

Voice command was one of the ways to activate it along with manual activation. Arnold installed the manual activation so that if there was any need, even his summons or others like Allen could also activate it in Arnold's absence.

' I need to think of a different way for the others to activate it as well. Manual activation can backfire on us as well.' Arnold thought as the barrels of the sentry lit up, 'For now, I should take their voice samples and incorporate them with mine so that all of us would be able to activate these using our voice. OK, I'll do it later, right now, let's test this boy out.'

The sentry activated and started oscillating sideways in a periodic fashion. As of now, it could cover up to 220° area in front of it, the other side, however, was completely unguarded. You could say it was a 'blindspot' that too quite a big one. But since Arnold was planning on using them for defence more than offence, it wasn't much of an issue. Also, he was going to use them like a pack of wolves, not like a lone wolf. So it was all good for now.

Arnold went ahead and placed a dozen tin canisters all around the workshop and used his fire ability to heat them up so that they could be registered by the sentry's AI. Once done, he stood behind the sentry wearing a pair of protective glasses. (Gotta protect them mystique eyes.)

"Alright, light 'em up!"

The slowly rotating barrel of the sentry picked pace all of a sudden. A loud buzzing sound came out of it and the next second it started firing bullets like a dragon, endlessly spewing fire. The workshop was filled with loud sounds of gunfire. Arnold felt like he was standing in the middle of a warzone. The sound coming from the sentry wasn't very loud but the noise increased by tenfold because of the constant echoes being generated by the large hall.

"Alright, that's enough!" Arnold shouted but his voice got shut down by the reverberation, "I SAID, THAT'S ENOUGH!"

Finally, the firing came to a halt. The workshop was filled with dust and smoke which soon started settling down. The barrel of the gun was overheated but apart from that, the sentry was fine. The workshop, however, wasn't in the condition Arnold had expected it to be.

Sentry shot down the tin canisters one after another like it was supposed to. The problem arose when the canisters were out of the way. After the canisters were obliterated into pieces, sentry's Al, started looking for its next target which was, (you guessed it right) the warm fireplace of the forge. That was the source of dust and dirt that had enveloped the workshop. Out of the four fireplaces, three had been destroyed but were reparable. Most of the workbenches that were there had also been destroyed.

"It's explosive, that's for sure." The corners of his mouth twitched as he massaged his forehead, "Gotta tell someone to clean this mess up... fck it, I'll take a shower first."

Arnold turned around and left to shower, forgetting to switch the AI off. With the AI still being active, it was now in the fail-safe mode Arnold had put in place.

What was the fail-safe mode? Shoot and kill anything that entered in the sentry's range. Anything.

****

Ten minutes later...

Arnold had completed his workout routine and just stepped into the shower. The water slowly washing away the tiredness of his muscles.

"Living in the wastelands ain't that bad if your summons take care of your duties, hehe."

Suddenly his communicator started blowing up. After seeing that Talos was calling him, Arnold picked it up.

"What's up?"

"Master, Lady Nina and Lady Nicole have arrived. Where shall I escort them to?" Talos' electronic voice ruined through Arnold's ears.

"I was hoping they wouldn't come." Arnold mumbled, "Either way, tell Allen to take care of them while I get ready."

"I'm afraid he won't be able to do so."

"Why? Did something happen?"

"The master told him to visit the other bases, remember?"

"Well, in that case, have them wait I'm the workshop and also, send someone to clean the mess up-"

"What do you mean, Master? You have been resting, haven't you?" Arnold sensed a bit of anger in Talos' voice but... it wasn't possible for an automaton to be angry right?

"Ahem. Yeah, I've been resting. Dunno why I said what I said. Hehe."

"So should I tell them to head towards the workshop?" Talos confirmed it once again.

"Yup. I'll be out in a few minutes."

"As you wish, master," Talos replied and ended the call.

"Man, this day is getting... what do you call it? oh right, a pain in the fcking a*s!" He grabbed the towel and ran out of the shower.

***

Near the helipad at the same time...

"Is Arnold alright?" Nina asked Talos as soon she stepped out of the helicopter.

"Of course he is. A puny force of monsters won't be able to harm him." Talos bowed before the ladies and replied, "Although, it was a reckless move. Even for him. I don't wanna pry deeper into the matter but I assume, you two had something to do with it?"

"It was my fault-" Nicole mumbled but Talos cut her off.

"No worries my lady. No one can change what happened, but we could work on making it better right?" Talos said and turned around, "Master is waiting for you in the workshop. This way please."

"The base is getting better day by day, I see." Nina appraised Talos as she looked at the newly installed defences of the base from the Humvee they were sitting in, "Everyone here seems to be happy as well. It was a good decision to make Arnold a Section Chief. Don't you agree, Nicole?"

"Yes..." Nicole replied but seemed to be out of the place.

"Stop overthinking things, will you?! No matter what, he's your brother right? So just apologise to him and it'll be fine." Nina tried to cheer her friend up but to no vail, "You siblings are way too sensitive, you know that?"

Nicole opened her mouth but before she could say anything, Talos stopped the car.

"We're here."

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