Kaleb tried to keep steady as he looked into the small mirror. He had the thing attached to the backrest of his workbench and was trying to get a good look at his robotic arm socket. Said robotic arm was laying out on the bench being looked over by Daivor. The thing had only a few upgrades and had been with him since he started the game. It was long overdue for an overhaul. The only aspects of his arm that had seen any upgrades were Shocky and his Spike Launcher. But the entire arm needed an update.

  “Yeah, this socket is fucked.” Kaleb sighed as he locked at the connector ports.

  With his Robotic Skill, he could tell that the cybernetic had been installed by a complete novice. Which was a little weird to think about. Because according to his backstory, it was he who installed it. Kaleb still wasn’t sure how that all worked or if it changed things retroactively. But what he knew was he was looking at a fairly amateur attempt at a cybernetic socket. One multiple years old at that. Which meant the socket itself needed an update. Then he could focus on the arm.

  “This thing is all spit and dreams as well.” Daivor grunted. “Seriously, the only thing holding it together is the armor upgrades you gave it.”

  “Nothing recyclable?”

  “Nope. Take Shocky and the Launcher and melt it down for parts.”

  “Then what? Take one of the junk models and try to cobble together a working arm?”

  “I would do that first and then junk the old one.”

  An icy blast of air hit Kaleb in the side and he turned to see Roy and Marie running out of the server room. The two teens quickly shut the door and turned sheepish smiles to the rest of the room.

  “Shit! That’s cold. Server room is up and running, Chief. You just have to finish up the scanner.” Roy said, shaking out his hands.

  Marie simply nodded in confirmation with Roy’s words before rushing toward the forge. The new AC unit Kaleb placed in the server was working well, it seemed. But it did make the rooms vastly different in temperature. Kaleb fought the reminder of the shiver that came with the cold air from his body and turned back to his work. The scanner could wait a few moments while he ran through some of the robotic arms. It would need a lot of coding and debugging before he got it to do what he wanted it to do.

  He turned back to the wall of cataloged junk and moved over. Roy was still standing there warming himself, So Kaleb waved him over.

  “Help me get some of these arms onto my workbench.”

  The teen moved to help as Kaleb grabbed an armful of skinny robotic arms. Some of which looked like robot arms. But he wasn’t picky. He could learn from all of them. Roy hurried behind him, carrying a few more of the prototypes they had picked up. With a loud clatter, they set the arms onto the metal workstation and stepped back. Roy looked worried that the pile of arms would collapse, but Kaleb's eyes were caught by something else. It was the black synth-muscle arm they had discovered during their first foray into the junkyard. But that couldn’t be right. Blutschl?ger and the Quinica took those arms during their first, and only, deal.

  Reaching for it, Kaleb asked. “Roy, does this seem familiar to you?”

  “A little, but I’m honestly not that interested in robotic arms, Doc. No offense.”

  “None taken. I think this is the same prototype we’ve seen before.”

  “Or maybe a different iteration.” Daivor threw in.

  Kaleb nodded as he studied the arm. Roy coughed slightly, grabbing Kaleb’s attention. When he looked back at the boy, Roy seemed a little lost.

  “What’s up, Roy?”

  “Just wondering if you need any help. Most of my jobs are done. The new equipment just needs a field test. Hint-hint.”

  “I hear you. We’ll go out the next chance we get. But for now, that scanner could do with some coding and debugging. If you need help, Farrah is very good with that stuff.”

  “She also doesn’t like to be disturbed during work.”

  “Just tell her it’s to keep us out of her hair later.” Kaleb shrugged before he went back to his arm.

  The slim black arm was made of coiled synth-muscle and what looked like titanium armatures. Normally the synth-muscle would’ve been covered by a realistic flesh coating. But here, that was unnecessary. It was just a prototype. Fashion would come after function. Which told Kaleb there was something wrong with this arm. A flashing red light accompanied by a soft beep brought Kaleb’s gaze back to his workstation. Daivor was kicking a few arms off the table as he puffed on his pipe.

  “Table can only scan one arm at a time. Need to clear the space.”

  Kaleb grunted and helpfully dumped the arms to the floor. A few faces turned his way, but he waved them off as he set the first arm into position. The benches screen came to life and scanned the thin robotic arm. A diagnostic readout popped up on the screen, but Kaleb saved it and pushed it to the side. A few homunculi were pushing the next arm toward him, so Kaleb reached down and grabbed it. He set that one to scan as his new helpers moved the old one out of position.

  And on it went, as Kaleb slowly scanned each robotic arm. Some were cybernetic. Clearly meant to be a prosthetic for some civilian. While others were robotic, all angles and hard edges with none of the musculature of a normal arm. Kaleb also realized that the robotic arms were solid metal. No internals to speak of. The cybernetic arms were more robust and had full system suites meant to be interacted with by the user or the mechanic in charge of the device. Only a few number of the arms had synth-muscle as well. The bio-responsive metal was meant to coil and contract like a normal human muscle but with leagues more strength to them. Unfortunately, most of the muscle fibers were inert. Whatever powered them taken away when K-Tech dumped the arms.

  The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  Kaleb groaned as the next arm he scanned showed the same defect. “Still no power supply.”

  “Or any traces of one that I can gather?” Daivor grumped. “But that’s what we were expecting, right?”

  “I always expect people to be lazy when doing their job. Unfortunately, that doesn’t seem to be the way K-Tech quality control seems to work.”

  “They seem fairly thorough. Even so, we can infer some things based on the placement and size of the energy chamber.”

  Kaleb placed another arm on his bench as Daivor brought up a monitor and showed it to Kaleb. It was the diagnostic readout of another cybernetic arm. The gnome tapped a finger on an empty space in the arm’s shoulder and forearm before speaking.

  “It seems they divided the workload for the arm between two sections. But the real workhorse is in the shoulder. The one on the forearm appears to be a backup or a power supply for some kind of interface.”

  “Repair and upgrade services panel?”

  “Possibly. But the readout doesn’t tell us much. Just that multiple power lines ran from there to there and then back up there.” Daivor said, pointing at multiple spots on the arm. “I suspect this was a simple civilian variant of an arm that has yet to go to market.”

  “Probably why those lines are still exposed.”

  “Indeed.”

  Kaleb handed the arm that had just finished scanning to the homunculi and looked down for another one. But there were no more left. Instead, the little hard workers were scurrying around the workshop, looking for another job to do. Kaleb sighed as he took his seat and swung the workbench’s monitor his way. Now it was time for the long task of going through each arm’s readouts and cataloging the findings. Some arms would be great for upgrading his own arm. But some of the other arms could help in other ways too.

  The sound of the door to Kaleb’s workshop opening and closing caused him to turn around. Jar-lock’s eyes caught his own and the big mage grinned awkwardly. Kaleb gave the man a confused look and spun on his chair. Jar-lock’s eyes glanced over the workshop for a few seconds before they returned to Kaleb.

  “Still hard at work, I see.”

  Kaleb snorted. “Still horrible at small talk, I see. What’s up Jar?”

  “I just wanted to check in with everyone and see how things were going. I heard we got tapped by the HLO again and figured they’d be stringing you up by your robot bits.”

  “Naw. Abby was a bit pissed. But most of them understood. How are things in the Real?”

  “Interesting. My ship wasn’t anywhere near the discovery. But we’ve gotten a lot of news. Most of it hearsay and the like, but some of it could be reputable. All I know is that the new planet is habitable and the local fauna is pushing back. But the colony ships will do what they do. Us grunts are just there to make people feel safe.”

  Kaleb nodded as he looked over at his friend. Jar-lock was wearing his customary robe, the same as always. But now he there was a large belt at his waist holding Kaleb’s newest sidearm. He knew that underneath the robe was the armor he had fashioned Jar-lock a while ago. Kaleb was thinking through upgrades for the mage when the bigger man set a hand on his shoulder and waved at his missing arm.

  “So… you working on some upgrades?”

  “Hey, you and the others already got your sidearms. Now it’s time for me to get something.”

  “Fair. What about the shield? I’m told you updated it?”

  “Hardly. I just increased the power output. It’s a little slower to step through, but it should shock the shit out of trespassers.”

  Jar-lock raised an eyebrow. “To what extent?”

  “I don’t know. But I’m sure will have an opportunity to find out. Hey, take off your robe,” Kaleb asked abruptly.

  “What?”

  “Are you still wearing my old armor? Maybe I can upgrade that next or maybe give it to the kids to look over. Marie doesn’t enjoy working with non-metals. But Terrance may want a crack at it.”

  The big mage looked at Kaleb for a few seconds before he started to pull the robe over his head. Underneath, Kaleb could see the man was wearing standard jeans and a sweaty t-shirt. The robe was half over Jar’s head when the workshop door opened again.

  “Whoa! Am I interrupting?” Abby asked, sounding far too excited.

  Kaleb rolled his eyes and looked past Jar-lock. Abby was in her own standard get-up of a black hoodie and black slacks. Oddly, though, she wasn’t wearing shoes. Which told Kaleb she was coming from the training mats. She too was wearing Kaleb’s newest sidearm and he could see the bulges of K-tech’s black armor under her clothes.

  “No, Abs. I’m just looking at Jar-lock’s armor and seeing if there’s anything to upgrade or repair. How’s yours?”

  “The armor? It’s fine. The shit is sturdy, if a little rigid. I just came by to thank you for the pistols. I didn’t expect you to get them done that fast.”

  “Meh. We had a lot of half-completed models from Under-Town.”

  Jar-lock froze with his rolled-up robe in his arms. “You went back there again?”

  “Yep. But I think that would call for another meeting, Jar, and we’d have to open a discussion on New Business.”

  “I feel you are using the meeting process to postpone tough conversations.”

  “Not at all. I’m just sticking to the rhythm and workflow you’ve set, Jar-lock.” Kaleb grinned sarcastically.

  “I’ve told you, properly scheduled briefings can keep us all informed on the goings on of the hangar as well as what’s being done in our territory.”

  “And I’ve told you that constantly interrupting us to take part in those meetings slows down productivity and prevents us from monitoring our assigned area.”

  “Well, we don’t have to worry about that now, do we? You’ve just fucked us into a corner yet again. Thanks to your vendetta against the HLO.”

  Kaleb blew out an annoyed breath and was about to respond when Abby clapped her hands hard near their faces.

  “HEY! You two need to fucking quit it! Jar, the professor is right. You go too far with your little meetings. Also, this latest punishment from the HLO is hardly his fault. It’s more of them overreaching. Farrah and the duck are looking into ways to combat the order legally. So lay off!”

  “Yeah!” Kaleb threw in before the petite woman rounded on him, finger pointed up at his snout.

  “You, however, need to realize that your scatterbrained way of doing things is also unproductive. You fly off the handle without informing the group and make decisions for us as a whole. Not to mention your snappy attitude with the local power structure has gotten us into some hot water as well. Both of you need to cool it and, Professor, you need to give me a second pistol.”

  Kaleb was nodding along with the short woman’s words until she got to that last part. Then he froze and glared down at Abby. “That’s the whole reason you barged in here, isn’t it?”

  “Barged?! I didn’t barge! I merely walked in while you were having the muscly mage strip. Imma tell Vivi.”

  Kaleb rubbed his face in annoyance before turning to shout over his shoulder. “Abby asked for a second one, Roy! You owe me twenty credits.”

  “Damn it!” said the teen’s voice as Kaleb shook his head.

  “I knew you would. I didn’t peg you as the type to aim while shooting.”

  “Hey! Two Gun can fire twin pistols at the same time with ease.”

  “He also has super reflexes, Abs. So he has all the time in the world to line up a shot. But whatever, Roy will have your gun ready soon enough. His punishment for doubting his boss’s wisdom!”

  Kaleb shouted the last sentence back over his shoulder at the teen. He heard the boy blow a raspberry at him in response. Nearby Jar-lock was watching the by-play with interest, before a loud ringing came from D34d-I’s office. That usually meant someone was at the gate. The three of them shared a look before they walked out of the workshop as one and hurried over. By the time they got to the office, though, the call had already been picked up by Claire. The big green woman was listening to the voice on the other end of the call before she glanced up and saw all of them.

  Once she got the information from the gate guards, Claire turned to the rest of the room and grinned.

  “Professor, it seems your Under-Town friends have come over for a visit.”

  “Who?” Kaleb asked, confused.

  “A Mr. Shaggy and Mr. Vlad are here to ‘seek an audience’ with you, Professor.”