Angie Clever

The shop echoed with the sounds of steel clanging against the floor and the hiss of the duel layer plasma torch. Glints of orange fire reflected off the polished metal walls, walls so clean that no a speck of dust could be found. The sound of whirling metal vents reverberated overhead. In the center of the room, parts were flung haphazardly around the floor underneath the construction.

Metal braces supported the meridian steel goliath. Its arms lay unattached by its sides, with it deep purple and red cables the thickness of a man’s fist protruding from the sockets. Its torso and legs were attached crudely together, leaving exposed wiring and circuitry. The control center in the head was missing its anti-shatter glass panels.

A short, stumpy man bent over the control center inside the head, cursing under his breath as he worked the plasma torch like a brush against the thick meridian steel layers. A short brassy droid stood a few feet away stamping bolts into the metal as quickly as it cooled. Steam hissed from the pressure gaps in the metal as the last of the moisture was removed from the alloy.

In the background the huge robotic arms controlled by the shop’s computer mainframe clasped onto the unattached arms. With a grating of metal against metal, the arms jolted up and into place. Tiny droids jolted from the self stasis compartments in the arm sockets, and in a burst of flaming arcs and screeching bending metal the arms settled into place. With a metallic thud the adapter twisted, permanently securing the addition.
The man cut the arc and lifted his visor, wiping his face with a grubbed, gloved hand. “Almost finished,” he thought, “almost…” In the background a whirl of tiny droid covered the robotic goliath, bolting tiny plates across the exposed circuitry. The joints appeared covered with giant, almost reptilian metal scales that sharply contrasted the geometric plates that made up most of the thing. The man flipped his visor down and continued cutting and welding, flowed by the flurry of the finishing droids.

Droids screeched as they were thrown from their work, several smashing against a wall to fall lifeless. A huge thud shook the entire shop. A pounding, hammering sound reverberated from the far wall.
“What the…” the man was interrupted as the far wall collapsed in on itself.

Piercing white light shot in through the opening, as if from a huge flood light. The man frantically worked the plasma torch against one last arc. “Finished… maybe it’s not to late.” Tossing the torch away, he flipped up his visor and started frantically hitting glowing buttons that littered the control interface. Electricity rippled threw the machine, shooting jolts like blue lightening into the walls, and knocking the man from the control panel, sending him sprawling across the floor. He slid into the all with a lifeless thunk, falling unconscious in the corner.
The sound of ripping metal echoed, and the white lights grew closer. The mechanical thing slowly raised a plated arm that was easily the height of twenty men in length. All at once, violet light diodes lit down its spine and inside its control panel, and it sprang into a crouched position, sensors focused on the intrusion.