The Orphan Rebels Part Five
Opening Scene: Collar Preparation
The cargo hold of the Stellar Harvester had been transformed into Griff's makeshift electronics workshop. Broken control collar pieces were scattered across every available surface, along with circuit boards, tiny screwdrivers, and a soldering iron that kept sparking dangerously.
"Ow!" Griff yelped, shaking his hand after another electric shock. "These things really don't want to be fixed."
Alice peered over his shoulder, her optical sensors analyzing his work. "The external lights are the easy part. But if any BURROWS bot gets close enough to scan for the control chips..."
"I know, I know," Griff muttered, carefully reconnecting a wire. "Good news is, I don't think they'll scan too closely. Bad news is, if they do, we're totally busted."
Brock was practicing walking with his hands behind his back like a prisoner. "How's this look? Defeated enough?"
"You look constipated," Leesa said bluntly. She was having her own problems - every few seconds her hand would drift toward her plasma pistols. "This is harder than it looks. Everything in me wants to fight back."
"That's exactly why this might work," Industrial-23 said, his deep voice rumbling through the cargo hold. "Real prisoners would be scared, not aggressive."
Servo-7 was running diagnostics on the other volunteers. "We've identified optimal candidates for the infiltration. Industrial-23 and myself, plus a maintenance bot and a lifter bot. We all worked surface operations before and know how guard rotations function."
Griff held up the first completed collar, its green lights blinking in a convincing pattern. "One down, three to go. These actually look pretty good if I do say so myself."
"Don't say so yourself," Leesa replied. "Let's see if they fool actual mining colony guards first."
Alice moved closer to examine Griff's handiwork. "The deception only needs to last long enough to get inside. Once we're in position near the holding area..."
"Then we start the real show," Brock finished.
The March to the Colony
The morning air was thick with humidity and the distant sound of heavy machinery as the infiltration team emerged from the jungle canopy. The fake collars blinked steadily on the necks of their robot allies, while the three kids walked ahead with their hands secured behind them with loose restraints they could easily break.
"Remember," Servo-7 said quietly, "you three are captured intruders. We're loyal workers bringing you in for processing."
Industrial-23's heavy footsteps crunched through the cleared ground as they approached the colony's outer perimeter. The contrast was stark - from lush jungle to barren, scarred earth in the span of a few steps.
"First checkpoint," Griff whispered, spotting two guard robots flanking a simple gate.
The guards were standard security units, not the dangerous BURROWS bots they'd encountered in the jungle. Red armor plates, basic sensor arrays, and energy weapons that looked well-maintained.
"Halt," one guard called out as they approached. "State your business."
Servo-7 stepped forward, his fake collar lights blinking innocently. "Found these organics snooping near sector seven. Standing orders are to bring all captured intruders to holding for interrogation."
The guard's optical sensors swept over the group, lingering briefly on the kids before moving to examine the collars on the robots. "Identification codes."
"Worker designation Servo-7, maintenance division," Servo-7 replied smoothly. "These are Industrial-23, Heavy-Lift-12, and Maintenance-5. All assigned to perimeter patrol duties."
The guard seemed satisfied and waved them through. "Proceed to central processing. Security will handle the prisoners from there."
As they walked deeper into the colony, the full scale of the operation became clear. Massive drilling platforms towered above the jungle, their enormous drills and scoops disappearing deep underground. Conveyor systems carried endless streams of raw materials toward processing facilities that belched smoke into the jungle air.
"Look at all those robots," Brock murmured, seeing dozens of collared workers moving with mechanical precision between the various installations.
"And look at that," Leesa added, pointing to a pile of broken robot parts near one of the maintenance sheds. Just like the asteroid colony, except here the discarded pieces were mixed with chunks of wood and root systems - the jungle itself was being processed along with the robots.
Suddenly, the ground twenty feet to their left exploded upward. A BURROWS bot emerged in snake form, then transformed into its bipedal configuration, sensors sweeping the area.
The infiltration team froze.
The BURROWS bot's head turned toward them, yellow optical sensors focusing on their group. For a terrifying moment, it seemed to be analyzing the fake collars in detail.
"Routine patrol," Industrial-23 said calmly. "Prisoner transport to holding area."
The BURROWS bot's sensors blinked once, then it transformed back into snake mode and disappeared underground, apparently satisfied.
"That was too close," Griff breathed as they continued toward the central facility.
"We're committed now," Brock replied. "No turning back."
Inside the Facility
The central processing building was a maze of corridors and industrial noise. Steam hissed from overhead pipes while the constant rumble of underground drilling vibrated through the floor. Their robot escorts marched them deeper into the facility, past work stations where collared robots sorted stellarite with mechanical precision.
"This place is huge," Griff whispered, noting the multiple levels visible through grated floors above and below them.
What struck Brock most was the silence of the working robots. Unlike their freed companions back on the ship, these robots moved without personality, without the small conversations and interactions that made them seem alive. The collars had reduced them to nothing more than sophisticated tools.
They passed a repair station where a maintenance robot was being fitted with replacement parts. One arm hung useless at its side, sparks occasionally flying from damaged circuits. But the robot continued working with its remaining functional arm.
"That could have been any of us," Servo-7 said quietly to his infiltration team.
As they descended a ramp toward the lower levels, Heavy-Lift-12 pointed discreetly toward a side corridor. "Communications center is up one level from here. I remember the layout from my previous assignment."
"And transport bay?" Industrial-23 asked.
"Adjacent to the holding area. About fifty meters past where they're taking us."
They turned a corner and found themselves in what was clearly the facility's detention section. Barred cells lined both sides of a long corridor, but these weren't empty. Inside the cells, dozens of robots sat motionless - but something was different about them. Their posture, their positioning, seemed less mechanical than the workers above.
"Processing area for problematic units," one of the facility guards explained to Servo-7. "These showed signs of resistance to their programming. They're scheduled for reprogramming tomorrow.”
As they approached a cell, one of the imprisoned robots looked up. For just a moment, its optical sensors met Brock's eyes, and the robot's hand moved slightly - forming the same heart shape that Alice used to make back at the orphanage.
"They're not broken," Brock realized. "They're pretending."
Word had spread fast of the asteroid breakout and the Orphan Rebels.
The robot nodded at Brock ever so slightly.
The facility guard was busy with a control panel, preparing to open an empty cell for the "prisoners." This was their moment.
Brock caught Industrial-23's optical sensor and nodded once.
The Signal and First Strike
"Now!" Brock shouted, breaking free of his loose restraints.
Industrial-23 moved faster than anyone expected for such a large robot. His massive fist connected with the facility guard, sending the robot flying into the wall where it crumpled with a shower of sparks.
Servo-7 and the other infiltrators immediately began ripping the fake collars from their necks while Heavy-Lift-12 smashed the control panel that locked the detention cells.
"We're here to liberate this facility!" Leesa called out to the imprisoned robots as cell doors began sliding open. "Are you with us?"
The response was immediate and overwhelming. Dozens of robots poured from the cells and the freed bots scrambled to rip the collars of the prisoners. Soon another twelve collarless bots joined their ranks.
"Communications center, one level up!" Brock directed, pointing toward the ramp they'd descended earlier. "We cut their outside contact first so the guard bots can’t call for help!"
Alarms began blaring throughout the facility as their small infiltration became a full uprising.
Race to Communications
The corridors that had been quiet and orderly moments before erupted into chaos. Facility guards converged from multiple directions, their energy weapons lighting up the hallways with deadly fire.
Industrial-23 led the charge up the ramp, his reinforced armor deflecting most of the incoming shots. Behind him, the newly freed robots rushed along.
"Left corridor!" Heavy-Lift-12 shouted over the noise of battle. "Communications is behind the blast door!"
They fought their way through waves of facility guards, the narrow hallways working to their advantage as the guard bots couldn’t swarm them.
But as they reached the comms level, a more ominous sound joined the chaos - the mechanical grinding of BURROWS bots emerging from the floor, walls, and ceiling around them.
"They're trying to surround us!" Servo-7 called out, blasting at a snake-form BURROWS bot that had just erupted from a ventilation shaft.
Griff, Leesa, and Brock pressed against the blast doors leading into the comms area as Griff tried hacking the door’s opening mechanism.
Before anyone could ask how long it was gonna take him to hack the door, it rumbled open a few feet, just wide enough for the kids to slide in. Brock turned to the bots still fighting behind them.
“Go!” yelled Servo-7.
Brock turned away into the Comms Center, leaving the liberated bots to fight against the Burrows Bots and guards.
Inside the Communications Center was a small rocket surrounded by computers with slowly rotating antennae attached to the top of each computer.
“A rocket?!” shouted Brock. “Are we in the right place?”
Griff was already plugging his own hacking gear into a nearby computer and tapping on the screen.
“It’s an interstellar beacon.” Griff said, not taking his eyes off the screen. “Sometimes the command ships are too far away from the mining colonies so if there’s an emergency, they shoot this little rocket out to the command ship to alert the company.”
Alarms still blared throughout the facility and lights flashed. A hissing sound came from the rocket in the middle of the room and the ceiling above it slowly opened up. Smoke began to spray from the bottom of the rocket as it’s engines primed.
“Uh… Griff… It looks like the rocket or beacon or whatever is gonna blast off.” Leesa said, backing up.
“I know, I know, I’m trying to hack it but… just give me a minute!” Griff snapped.
Leesa and Brock backed up against the wall, pointing their weapons at the rocket beacon as a last resort of Griff wasn’t able to stop it.
But just as the thrusters began to warm up the comms room, the lights on the rocket dimmed out and the smoke thinned to nothing.
“Got it!” Griff said. “Rocket off-line. Comms are dead.”
Slowly, every computer screen in the entire room flickered and went black.
Griff, Leesa, and Brock then rushed back out the Comms Room blast door to help the robots fight off the Burrows Bots.
Luckily for them, the fight was over.
The robots were damaged, helping each other re-attach limbs and solder wires back together.
“We good out here?” Brock asked.
Smoke wafted through the air from the smashed guard bots and it smelled like burned metal.
Servo-7 turned to them and nodded. “What next?” he asked.
“Now we find the collar computers to turn off all the collars and free the bots, right?” said Leesa.
One of the robots that they had freed from the prison cell earlier, now with dark burn marks along his metal chest, stepped forward.
“They took the Collar Control Center off-line?” it said.
“What?” asked Griff.
“After word got out of your rebellion on the asteroid facility. They identified the Main Collar Control as a weakness and now every collar works independently.” the robot said.
“So we can’t turn them off all at once?” asked Griff in disbelief.
The robot slowly shook his head back and forth.
Griff turned to Brock and Leesa, looking tired at just the thought. “We need to manually remove every collar. One by one.”
The End