《What Happened?》


 Preparation

    Connection lost with third robot, activating the fourth robot.


    In an underground base, a robot awakens, she moves out of her storage room, which had a four written above the door, she directly goes to the main computer to get the information about her mission. She confirms she is indeed number four by a series of passwords, after that she had to identify herself orally,"my name is Sara, a humanoid investigation bot. I am number four between my sisters, the body type I was given is that of a female human in her twenties, I am of average height, short hair green, blue eyes and a number four written on my forehead." She said confirming her identity, Sara was allowed into the main computer. She got all the necessary information about her mission. Her three sisters that proceeded her all got destroyed after collecting a great amount of information.


    Her mission was to collect the lost pieces of memories and get them to a marked location. A different base where her sisters were supposed to go to on the end of their missions.


    "Understood, it is a retrieval mission, and since my sisters were most likely destroyed I should prepare for the possibility of a fight." She marked the most efficient path. After that Sara headed to grab her equipment. She studied each one of them carefully before making her decision.


    This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there. The last step was to chose a helper. She picked Tom, a robot similar to cats. It had balanced states of attack, defense, and scouting ability.


    "I need a summary of your ability before confirming my choice.."Sara said in her robotic cold tone.


    "Affirmative, I am a lot bigger on the inside, the free space can be used to carry evidence. While its main role is to carry the cat units." Tom said.


    "Explain cat units." Sara ordered.


    "There are three types, Defensive cat unit (DCU), Offensive cat unit (OCU), and scout cat unit (SCU)." Tom said then released three robots, they were all small spherical robots, all of them had a small tail and a pair of cat ears. Each of them had a small screen in the middle which was colored according to robot type. Defensive was green, offensive red, and scout was blue. Scout had sound and video recording devices, ones of great quality. Offensive had three weapons, a laser sword as its tail, rocket launchers as its ears, and a small automatic rifle on its head. Defensive was the largest and had three green orbs floating around it, the green orbs formed a shield between them protecting a small area that can be linked with other defensive cat units to expand the area. Tom explained each robot, his explanation went to the smallest details.


    "You have very helpful skills."Sara said as she made her choice, she stored her tools in a special backpack.


    After all her preparations were done, Sara began her mission.

 The First Sister

    Sara reached her first target location after fifty seven minutes of traveling on foot, every time she checked her surroundings she found nothing, only rubble and huge empty spaces. The first location  was easily found, an extremely huge green forest. Its area equaled that of a big city, its trees stood strong and tall reaching the clouds.


    "Amazing.." Tom said sending out Scout cat units to check the surroundings, Sara moved forward towards her sister''s location showing no emotions.


    The two had to move carefully since the cat units detected a lot of animals that were mutated and became very dangerous. "First sister detected.." Sara pointed at a robot similar to her in design. The sister was stuck in a spider web,she was curled around a small green cube protecting it with an energy shield, that was the only function working in the ''dead'' robot.


    "Send scout units again." Sara said and watched, Tom released the same scout units as before, they covered every inch of the area as the two watched while hiding between grass.


    Sara watched carefully for possible threats, a lot of things were still the same only bigger. But many other things changed. A huge bee got close to a flower, but when it did the flower changed revealing two butterfly wings. The butterfly raised its sparkling legs in the air making the bee change direction preferring to crash on ground than touch the legs.


    "focus there..."Sara ordered Tom,the scene caught her attention.


    The bee took a few steps back then it charged with its own legs, the legs were covered in metal, as if the bee was wielding daggers. The butterfly swiftly avoided the strikes and kept trying to touch the bee. After a few tries, no insect was able to touch the other. The battle then changed place to air. But the win condition stayed the same, it was for the creature that gets the first hit.


    The bee''s daggers were obvious, but Sara was curious why the butterfly''s sparkling legs were dangerous, the battle went on for minutes, in the end the butterfly was able to touch the bee causing it to fall and crash to the ground.Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    "Paralysis..." Sara concluded as the butterfly ate the bee''s motionless body.


    "Shall I get a sample?" Tom asked.


    Sara denied,"no, my sister probably did that, the answer to what turned even a creature as gentle as a butterfly to a killing machine is in her memories." Sara said then went to observe the spider.


    "Most animals here fight by contact.."Sara said,"the spider has a web, when a prey gets captured the spider spits poison killing its prey from afar without engaging in combat.."Sara said then thought about her decision,"Tom, I need you to control a creature from the forest and distract the spider. I will cut my sister out of the web and take the information."Sara said, she gave the mind control device to her helper and went to save the other robot.


    Tom used a bee to distract the spider, he helped it with defensive cat units which surrounded the bee then they made all green orbs connect to protect against the poison. He focused on distraction buying Sara all the time she needed.


    Sara got as close as possible and ended up getting stuck close to her sister,"offensive cat units, free the two of us.."She ordered, the units used their laser tails to free the two, Sara inputted the password which made the robot cancel the energy shield around the information cube.


    She then scanned her sister identifying the cause of destruction, she engaged with a bee, that resulted in the destruction of many of her vital parts and in the end she fled aimlessly and got stuck in the web.


    Tom ran towards Sara, it didn''t take him long to get by her side,"warning, the controlled creature has been defeated." He reported.


    Sara used another gadget from the backpack, the ghost scarf, she gave one to Tom and then used the other on herself,It gave them three minutes to move like ghosts, they were able to float and move really fast nothing was able to hurt them, but the disadvantage was that they could not touch anything,thus preventing Sara from using it to retrieve the information in the first place. They went out of the forest within two minutes and forty seconds. When they arrived the scarves lost  their energy.


    "First task accomplished." Sara said and added the cube to her bag, she marked it as extremely important, after that she scanned herself and Tom to check for any problems,"nothing detected.".


    "Of course that was the easy part...Creatures of the forest are no match for artificial intelligence." Tom said and counted his cat units,"lost one point three percent scouts, one point five percent defensive and zero point four percent offensive." He reported.


    "Great results, I hope getting the other information will go as easy as this." Sara said then headed for the next robot.

 The Second Sister

    The second targeted location was a desert. It had something very special in it, a meteor landed there years before the disaster bringing along a very strange power source from outer space.


    Anything within a certain radius started growing blue rocks. They were very powerful energy generators, the problem was that their production rate was low.


    The strangest thing about the meteor was that it had, with all languages known to man, the warning ''do not attack'' written all over it.


    "The second sister is Close, I know it.."Sara said scanning the area,"did the scouts find anything?" She asked.


    "No robot was in sight." Tom said.


    "Then we will continue our se-"Suddenly Sara stopped and walked to a rock hitting her head against it,"everything went crazy.." Sara said and looked at the details of the area,"is this the effect of the alien energy source?" She looked at the crystals growing between the sand.


    "Are you sure? It never did anything like this before."Tom said, some machines had that special power source but showed nothing strange.


    "Only my human abilities were not affected.." Sara said then turned off everything else,"do the same Tom,this might be hard,but we are close to the second cube.."Sara said and continued her investigation.


    And it was one of the most boring things, no life, no sound, nothing at all. Even the blue stones which once gave a beautiful glow seemed dull. Sara continued walking until she saw the cube, it was stuck onto a high point in a tall rock.


    "Where is..the second sister?"Sara said, and for the first time she felt something,she felt sad, she climbed up the rock and then tried to pull the cube out, she tried multiple times but failed,"ugh..What..is this?" She felt frustration but the main emotion was confusion. She pushed her emotions aside then she took out a small cutting machine from her bag and cut the cube out of the rock.


    The moment the cube was in her backpack everything wen crazy, powerful energy waves were emitted from the rocks and from the meteor. Sara ran away in panic, she opened her map to see any close shelter, she had information about them all, even top secret ones. But something was off...All shelters were destroyed except for one.


    She ran fast with Tom by her side, it was for her luck that the last remaining shelter was not far away, she rushed in the underground shelter without thinking twice, she closed the door behind her quickly and then she sat down.


    Sara walked forward unlocking the tens of doors in front of her,"who is this shelter for?" She opened the last door getting her answer.


    Alfred Diameez, he earned himself the title of the richest man in the world. His children were taking care of his fortune and having their own businesses, while he was retired. Sara stayed silent while doing her research. He was now eighty years old, and this shelter was made for the purpose of keeping his sick body alive and supplying everything he might need.Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.


    "Hello sir.."Sara said walking inside the room slowly, the old man sat silently on his chair, he looked left and right looking for the human, his happiness made him forget he''s blind.


    "It has been a long time since I met a human...How did you? You know...It does not matter, come sit next to me young one." Alfred said, he was sitting on a huge chair with many other smaller chairs around him. He was bald with only some white hair on his head, he was huge, but at the same time frail due to old age, he shivered a little while holding his black coat close to himself.


    "What happened to everyone?" Sara asked in hopes she will get the answer to her mission, Tom on the other hand went to a corner and stayed silent. He did not do anything since he was not ordered to.


    "I do not know, everyone stopped telling me things after I was put her. They said that bad news are bad for my health." Alfred said and sighed.


    "I..I see..."Sara nodded slowly,"is there anything I can help you with?" She asked.


    "My one request is to talk..." Alfred coughed and moved his head in her direction.


    "Talk?" Sara tilted her head in confusion.


    "It has been a while since I talked from my heart to someone..."Alfred said.


    "How do you talk from your heart?" Sara asked.


    "See what I mean? People are like robots..Emotionless, I was once like that too. But once I reached the top..That was when I noticed it.." Alfred said shedding some tears,"do you realize how long it has been Since I talked to my children last time?" He said crying more and leaning towards Sara.


    Sara grabbed him not wanting him to fall, the way she grabbed him felt to him like something he haven''t had in a long time. A hug, he eagerly hugged back and cried onto her shoulder. Sara just froze in place analyzing her emotions, she felt sorry for him, she felt..The need to comfort him.


    And so, Sara talked to him mimicking a human as best as she could, in fact, she was too good at it. She lied making up her story, yet when she talked, the dreams, the moments she ''lived'', even though it was all made up it moved her.


    They talked for hours until Sara heard a beep,"what was that?"She asked.


    "Do not worry about it Sara.."Alfred laughed it off, but soon his laughs turned to rough coughs.


    "You turned off your life support system?!"Sara said shocked and tried to turn it back on.


    "Do not...I am..Happy at how this is.."Alfred gave her a weak smile.


    "But you will die!" Sara objected and tried again.


    "I never felt more alive..."Alfred pulled her close and then he hugged her,"you said you want to know how earth was destroyed...You will leave...And then I will be all alone again...I would rather die than keep living like this..." He said not wanting to keep Sara a prisoner, he wanted to leave with her from all his heart, but he could not.


    "Please..Let me save you..I will do anything..." Sara said trying not to cry.


    "I want to...Talk." Alfred said,"I want to die..With someone by my side."Alfred requested, he did not want anything else.


    Sara nodded slowly, she took a deep breath, she didn''t need it as a robot, but she needed it for her emotions.


    And then they talked...Until he died.


    After everything calmed down Sara walked out holding Alfred''s cold body, she buried him, nothing was on him,even the richest man on earth...Took nothing to the grave.


    The burial was done, but Sara reached the limit of her endurance, she cried,and cried,and cried,"why would an investigation robot need emotions?! Why why why why?! Was it to show off they could?! Or was it..Because they felt it emotions unimportant..?".

 The Third Sister

    It was the last location, and after it was the truth, "she died really close to the base." Sara said with a frown on her face.


    "She couldn''t die, she is just a robot, we are too."Tom said.


    Sara sighed and nodded, the last location was a huge city, was.


    Though compared to other cities this one was intact, the buildings were destroyed but some remained standing. it was only half destroyed, and similar to every remains of a city Sara visited, there was no sign for human life.


    "Strange symbols detected!" Tom said and showed Sara many pictures that his scout drones detected, they were red skulls painted in many places of the city, it was found frequently more on destroyed military robots and near big piles of skeletons.


    "The enemy is near, preparing battle equipment..." Sara said taking some battle devices.


    "Do we have any information about the symbol?" Tom asked.


    Sara tried to research the symbol, it wasn''t just a skull,it had many smaller symbols inside it.


    "Nothing found...It does not matter, my sister probably discovered it."Sara said.


    "You always say that, what if your sisters did not figure this out completely?" Tom asked.


    "Then I will go out and collect more information.."Sara said. It took many minutes of walking until she found the cube, it was in its shield, and strangely it was not damaged. Not a scratch.


    "Did the danger go away?" Tom asked.


    Sara checked the cube and shook her head,"I do not know, this cube was launched away from danger before my sister di-...Got destroyed." Sara said and stored the third and final cube in the ''very important'' section of her backpack.


    Afterwards she approached carefully towards her final destination, an underground base not so far away.


    She proceeded with extreme caution, and at the end, just when Sara was a few meters near the base a half destroyed military robot awakened.


    Sara quickly took out a special card from her backpack, its function was to let her pass beyond any military robot or any defense system as a neutral robot.


    The military robot had four metal legs, though one was missing, it had a rectangular body armed with various weapons, it was painted with dark colors mostly black, it scanned the card then it shoot it evaporating it,"denied...Spare no one."The robot said and readied its weapons.


    Sara jumped back and threw a device to the ground, which created a spherical energy armor around herself and Tom.


    "What do we do?"Tom asked looking up at Sara.


    "We fight, the robot is half destroyed,its defenses were trashed due to previous battles, It is possible to get close and destroy its energy sources. Tom, send out all cat units, you take cover and aid me in combat for afar."Sara gave her order and then the shield was destroyed.


    Tom did as ordered, he hid in a safe place, then commanded the defensive units to form a shield around Sara. The offensive units functioned as distraction, they also destroyed most of the projectiles aiming at Sara.Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.


    Sara acted quick she used her rifle to shoot one of the damaged legs and destroy it, thus further restricting the robot''s mobility. She moved around using speed to her advantage.


    Even the scout units were helpful, they covered every inch of the battlefield and provided Sara with all the necessary information. Sara then got close, she threw an electric grenade that disabled the enemy weapons. She jumped on the robot and used a cutting machine trying to reach the power source, but she triggered a trap which blew away her arm.


    Sara flinched and held onto the robot tightly with her other arm, she commanded the offensive units to make her a new arm, they all fused together making a sharp laser sword arm. The robot moved around going crazy and trying to get her off its back, but even when it managed to hit Sara against a wall she still clung onto it.


    Sara used her sword arm to penetrate the robot''s heavy armor and stab its power source, she pulled away pulling it along her side, she dropped on her back and looked at the robot,"two more to...go?"She looked confused as the robot lost its energy and fell down.


    Now that she got to think of it the robot usually had three energy sources, two main and one for back up, but this one only had a single energy source in its center.


    She looked at the source she ripped out of the robot and it was a blue stone from the meteor.


    "The uses were secret..Data says it was supposed to be used for peaceful purposes!" Sara said and then she put the rock in her backpack, she still had plenty of space since she used many of the devices she packed.


    She called back for Tom, he had lost more than half his cat units. But the mission was over.


    Sara entered the Base, she replaced her lost arm and then she activated the computer to analyze the information from the cubes.


    Tom went to recharge, later he would turn off himself because the mission was over.


    It was the same for Sara. But she refused, she even stopped the automatic solutions and wanted to decide by herself. She recharged herself and waited for the computer to finish analyzing.


    It took an entire day for the computer to finally give the answer,and Sara spent every second waiting with anticipation.


    "The reason for destruction of all human life is....Humans"Sara read, she read the sentence multiple time then she checked the details.


    The first sister''s studies showed that the forest was used as an experimental area for many chemical weapons and products which resulted in the mutation of all living beings in it.


    The second sister''s researches showed that the meteor was attacked. Humans ignored all warnings tried to destroy it to get the energy stones faster and learn how to make them, which caused it to backfire aggressively. This happened with tens of meteors and in the end all of them marked humans as danger. and even using a knife hundreds of meters away would count as an attack and cause the meteor to react violently.


    The third sister''s findings were the most critical. She deduced that the disaster is.. The third world war. At first it went with very little casualties since the military robots were programmed to cause minimum damage. But it was not enough, thus project ''D.A'' was launched, its symbol was the very same one that Sara found. It was used with robots to make it kill everything. Even people in shelters were not safe. Countries with this plan wanted to pressure other countries to give up and end the war quick so they wouldn''t have to use too much resources. But even when the opposing countries surrendered the robots did not stop, they continued to attack, and when they finished slaughtering all humans in the enemy countries they went for their own countries and kept fighting until every last human was killed. When humans were all dead, the robots attacked each other trying to satisfy the bottomless thirst for battle.


    Sara read feeling sorrow of how humans ended like that,"they do not deserve to live!" Sara screamed so loud, she almost destroyed her voice. Her hands shook violently as she panted, she activated all necessary steps to restore earth. But she did not clone other humans back, she even thought about deleting that possibility.


    Yet, she remembered, that not all humans are bad. She researched about how many humans wanted to protect nature, that many humans only wanted peaceful life, that many humans tried to stop this.


    And so she decided,"I will give humans their second chance, but I will watch every move they do..And take care of them to prevent them from repeating the same mistakes twice." Later she began working on her plans, hoping that humans in other dimensions are doing well. Hoping that those humans will not do such mistakes, and that they will take good care of their planet, of each other, and of themselves.