Critter Unit

Summary: I’d locked eyes with Mensah, looking like that. My energy weapons had deployed, without my awareness or direction. My targeting systems had identified her and Bharadwaj, quite insistently, as direct and immediate threats.

Maybe this is just a temporary, dangerous, system glitch, and a hard restart will fix me. I’ll just restart, comb through my code, do some debugging, find the corrupted files or whatever, and then I won’t indiscriminately murder my most trusted humans.

I should know by now to always assume the worst.

In which SecUnit is having some survival threat…response errors. And some…’targeting its humans’ malfunctions. And some…blackouts when restarting. I’m sure it’s fine.

Chapters 1 & 2 of my "SecUnit discovers it's not alone in its head, extreme amounts of stress and drama ensue" fic are now LIVE.

This is part 1 in a series. All 19 chapters are COMPLETE (aside from final edits) and I will be posting new chapters twice a week on Wednesdays and Saturday/Sundays while continuing to write part 2. This is a gen fic, focused on trauma (recovery), h/c, and heavily on Three & MB, also featuring ART and the PresAux crew in later chapters

It would mean the world to us if you checked it out and gave it some love. This is our first published fanfic in almost a decade and our first in this fandom, and it also ended up becoming profoundly personal and a little autobiographical, whoops! 

really fond of the idea that the adjustments murderbot made to its appearance for this mission made it look more a member of mensah's family

ID below the cut (copied from alt)

It is NOT escaping the third mom allegations 🚫

you encounter a secunit for the first time.

it saves your life in a situation where no one else would have been fast, strong, agile, and composed enough to do so.

your security team is immediately more alarmed by its presence than the attack that is obvious to you as the bigger issue at the moment

they insist it's dangerous and struggle to relax enough to take their weapons off of it

then a combatbot attacks your group

somehow this secunit, much smaller than the bot, unarmored, without any heavy weaponry on its person, manages to take it down. some real jaw-dropping action, all over in less than a minute

then it leaps into a room with two combatbots and not only survives, but it gets your unconscious friend out alive

then it immediately comes to your own rescue, disabling impressive combat armor

it then is dead-set on killing your attacker who is already immobilized and harmless

clearly this is an incredibly competent and dangerous and powerful person

then miki tells you that it IS rin and you finally put it together that not only is this person competent in the field, but it is also calling all its own shots and has truly come here all on its own and volunteered its services to help and protect you without needing to be asked or ordered

so this person is incredibly competent, dangerous, powerful, AND kind, AND fiercely protective, AND reassuring, AND intelligent, AND selfless

and it's still coming up with great ideas and still thinking proactively about how it's going to face down or distract another combatbot as though there's no doubt in the world that it, still bleeding heavily, still unarmored and barely armed, is ready for another round with a terrifying machine that appears to be nothing BUT armor and weapons

so you step forward to help treat its injuries

and it jerks back a step with the single most frightened face you've ever seen, as though you had lifted your arm to inflict pain and it was helpless to stop you

behind you, even miki can read the devastating expression that's breaking your heart and says "abene won't hurt you, secunit"

where did the fearsome fighter from moments ago disappear to?

⚠️Spoiler alert⚠️

This is when MB and Farai first met (every time I read this scene, it feels like Farai is interrogating her spouse's affair partner🥹)

And i'm happy to see the two of them building trust in each other in the latest series.

+The cutest part

things to say when you are not a place of honor

It's been on my mind since Platform Decay.

From wiki: A trigger warning is a content warning that a work contains material, writing, images, or concepts that may be distressing to some people. Trigger warnings are most commonly presented on a relatively narrow range of material, especially content about sexual abuse and mental illness (such as suicide, eating disorders, and self-injury).

Starting with Artificial Condition, we get very quick-and-miss-it lines around Tapan:

which seem to indicate an intent to cause trouble or violence, and from Tlacey:

Which is a touch more explicit in its implication and with the additional presence of a sexbot.

The narrative, and SecUnit, don't linger on either. They're referenced and moved on just as fast as they happened.

In Rogue Protocol, the narrative delves more into a scene that could be interpreted that way.

This is less blink-and-miss, but SecUnit is still not going into any detail. It is all implication based on pronouns and violence as to what might be going on here.

In Exit Strategy, the narrative lingers even longer, and twice it verbally raises the trauma Mensah may have gone through:

and SecUnit's concern for her psych that it brings it up twice with her before entering the ship (and thinks about it multiple times in addition to that) that she deflects its concern to focus on it:

Which the trauma is then further explored in the short story Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory with her feeling triggered by the environment she is in:

And the story lingers on the emotional impact to her and the importance of SecUnit as a person of safety:

She's been impacted on such a deep level:

That she feels like an object and that she has no safety:

Except for when SecUnit, Murderbot, is with her:

And again she deflects that she needs trauma treatment:

In Network Effect, SecUnit prevents a possible attack on Amena. Its threat assessment flags on sexual warnings but it doesn't seem to register or define it as a sexual threat. It does however feel strongly enough for that to also warrant a flag, even if it doesn't understand why:

We also see that Mensah, Amena's second mom, specifically had concerns about Marne, despite SecUnit believing Mensah didn't know about Marne.

She may well have been picking up on the sexual threats before SecUnit's threat system defined Marne as a threat. Amena seems to be unable to articulate what she has slowly realised:

And SecUnit doesn't seem to see a difference between a sexual threat and threats in general, despite recognising that something about relationships was going on.

In System Collapse there is a small moment of insight into SecUnit's anxiety about personal conflict between people it knows.

It is compulsively unable to relax until it identifies, or prevents, the threat. It is very upset:

And it approaches the situation almost aggressively, where Tarik recognises that it looks like something warranting a SecUnit's involvement:

And once it finds out it is sexual but not threatening anyone, it retreats in such a way as needing reassurance from Ratthi. It may not recognise what, specifically, is flagging its threat assessment but it is stressed.

In Platform Decay, we get the longest implied narrative so far across two chapters (end of chapter 7, start of chapter 8). It starts with intentionally hostile actions that has everyone alert and annoyed but not alarmed:

Frustrated and angry, but not alarmed, even as SecUnit frets about the violence it intends to enact and how it doesn't want them to be afraid of it:

Then the raiders speak and Farai understands the type of threat being implied despite the pretense of care.

She reacts faster than SecUnit's own threat assessment does to prevent Sofi from hearing it, gives it permission with a gendered swear to do what it needs to do:

And SecUnit is still puzzling over what kind of threat is happening, and when it realises it gets angry:

And it thinks around this kind of violence, how the humans are better at identifying this sort of threat than it is:

And it also thinks on how it relates to Farai and Mensah. That it doesn't want Farai to have trauma like Mensah does, Mensah who has trauma from killing, being kidnapped, and an undescribed "so on".

It had been so concerned about Farai being afraid of it, then when it is preventing what might have happened to Mensah from happening to them, Farai fully supports it doing what it needs to do - including murdering:

And then there is a moment for retaliation, for Farai to do at least some to them of what they have done to others (in their recordings) and intended to do:

And they discuss the situation, where Farai was willing for it to do whatever it had to do, no matter how it made her personally feel. Because she trusted it to save them the way it saved Mensah:

I wasn't intending to cover the TV as well but I saw a comment this morning that was offended and dismissive of people who read the following scenes as sexual threats or assault.

In Episode 2 Eye Contact, Gurathin makes a point that he does not believe of it as a person, and a desire to demonstrate his power and control over SecUnit to make it do something it doesn't want to do. And much like the raiders, he offers a pretense of care during the moment:

While requiring SecUnit to undergo this uncomfortable position, he then interrogates it on the sexual functions of constructs:

Which, in this visual format, we can watch as he walks up to it closely. How he looks it up and down while implying that could be a construct for sexual relations due to its kindness to Arada:

Then, when he invades its mind, he shows it imagery of his coworkers having sex. This can be seen as both Gurathin violating SecUnit, and also as SecUnit having "revenge" in kind for the sexual discussion Gurathin had forced upon it.

In Episode 5 Rogue War Tracker Infinite, we get multiple moments of sexual threats. There's the moments with Leebeebee, from her sexually objectifying it

To sexually assaulting it with a pretense of care, mirroring Gurathin's interrogation in a way we don't immediately realise is warning.

And each time SecUnit reacts in the same resigned and dismayed way. Similarly, it is resigned and dismayed when Gurathin invades its mind.

Another violation, that it then tries to take "revenge" on him in kind in Episode 8 Foreign Object. Which backfires as Gurathin violates its mind for a third time, violently.

Then in episode 10, while SecUnit is essentially unconscious and unaware, Gurathin invades its mind once again. He's gentle about it this time, he's doing it for Mensah, but the lack of consent on SecUnit's part continues to be present.

It can be seen as adjacent to a "Fuck or die" trope, where one party is unaware.

Bonus meta: Fandom edition

The pushback against discussions of sexual threats present in TMBD and MBTV, or of interpreting these scenes in that way, is frustrating.

To flag something as a potential trigger, to discuss how something can be seen as a sexual threat, isn't a criticism of a character or scene or story or author. It is not a bad faith reading, or haterism, or trolling, or anti-ism or any other reason for dismissal.

It is a discussion to have, a warning for those who may read a scene that way, so they can brace themselves or opt out entirely.

The point of this meta is to highlight that we all come at stories from different perspectives, and what one person might see as benign or harmless another might see as a narrative about sexual threats.

Both are valid and both are true.

So I hope this meta has people think that instead of being dismissive when someone reads a narrative as triggering, be kind, be supportive, engage if you want to understand.

While Arada and Murderbot's relationship is not central to the narrative over the course of the Murderbot Diaries series, they still have a meaningful and close friendship based on mutual respect, as MB has with all of its humans. Furthermore, Arada serves as MB's social foil to demonstrate the extent of its interpersonal skills.

The Murderbot Diaries books are written in first person perspective (with the exception of the short stories) and focus on the development of MB into a person who is comfortable identifying as a person, especially in the original quartet. As such, all of MB's interactions and relationships provide narrative foils in some sense because all of them are contrasting characters whose "qualities emphasise another's [...] by providing a sharp contrast" to Murderbot [1]. Arada appears in two books as a major character, one as a minor character, and is mentioned in two more without a significant role [2]. Over the course of the three books she plays a large role in, she and Murderbot become friends and mutual clients, although to a lesser extent than Murderbot and Mensah [3]. Their relationship sets up Arada's role as a foil highlighting MB's surprising analytic abilities in social situations, as well as its capability to thrive in such situations. Murderbot is better at initial big picture analysis, while Arada is good at small-scale interpersonal interactions.

Farai: but you don't like to be touched

They ran away. The SecUnits, finally freed of the governor module. They could finally run without dying.

The thing that I heavily explained to my sisters when I talked about the books, is that the governor module doesn't control the phisical actions of SecUnits, not like they'd think. It's not mind control, they are not a consciousness trapped and witnessing their body being moved around by outside forces (unless a combat override module or something similar is being used). They are constantly having to decide to follow orders because the alternative is instant punishment and death.

And that is so much worse, to be able to refuse, to be able to move on your own, having the capacity but not the liberty.

"SecUnits don't sulk" "SecUnits ere never allowed to sit down" "SecUnits have a distance limit"

I just now thought about it again with the context of the new rogue SecUnits. Because Murderbot had to hack its module all by itself, it was so alone, it was rogue so long and still being sold into contracts, and yeah, eventually it learned to leave. But these other SecUnits, they get approached by Three, who's going around giving out this governor module hacking bundle like it's throwing flyers in the wind, and suddenly they can all just... act of their own free will? Without getting fried or exploded from the inside out?

So I read PD May 4 & 5, and "liveblogged" all my notes in my notes app on my phone. Then I shared some of them in some of the fandom spaces I'm in, but I realized I've never shared them here on Tumblr and that's just sad! So, this'll take a few posts, and I'll put it all behind read more links, here are my Live Reactions to Platform Decay.

Chapter 6

Mobility devices!! Yes oh yes oh yes!!!

SecUni: leave me behind—humans: no fucking way

Yessss SecUnit is totally planning to download and watch children's media :DDD

ROGUE SECUNIT GIVES SECUNIT THE PACKAGE FOR FREEING SECUNITS

SecUnit gives it more useful codes to help it, yesss spread that knowledge around ;u;

Sofi with the heartbreaking questions and SecUnit witnessing the difficult conversations adult humans sometimes have with children in order to explain things to them. Sad but also I LOVE.

The humans are coming up with plans that SecUnit didn't think of, SecUnit gets to experience clever people saving each other and it's a part of that ;u;

Chapter 7

"it was better than a survival bag in space" excellent I can't wait to see what silly word your going to gift us with for what these things do like you did with blorp xD

Awww yay SecUnit gets to recharge via watching an episode of its comfort show :'3

Sofi: yaaay stealing a flyer! SecUnit: yeah, stealing a flyer. Farai and Naja: WTF stealing? We're totally giving it back!

Sofi: what if there are monsters ;n;

The planet has been utterly trashed from being mined ;n;

IT'S BOTHERED LESS BY SOFI FALLING ASLEEP ON IT BECAUSE SHE'S A JUVENILE is this partially why it let Amena make its hair fluffy???

Oh no, torus pirates!

I continue to love Naja, "give me a gun" she's so awesome

It doesn't want Mensah's humans to be afraid of it after it gets violent (and possibly kills) the pirates ;n; so it tries to give them a warning that is about to do so!

Ohhhhh shit, those pirates are leering at Farai

Farai: "I want you to do whatever you have to to keep those motherless shits away from my daughter" AAAHHHHH

Ohfuck SecUnit is EXTREMELY PISSED OFF now, these fuckers are doing piracy for fun! Not out of need!

It *would've* given Farai and Naja guns but doesn't want them to have to handle additional trauma of having killed another person ;n; IT PROTECC

It hasn't even killed the pirates!!

"My attempts at communication so far had been met with blank or incredulous stares" SecUnit are you ever this chatty with them? Ever? xD

Chapter 8

SecUnit: oh shit I'm upside down (well, at least it didn't fall on its face this time)

It gets RIGHT UP BEHIND THE PIRATES lololol

It consisers making a fake throat-clearing noise xD

The humans missed its dramatic entrance oh no

SecUnit: shows the pirates a video of the last time they "helped" people

SecUnit: c'mon just attack me already so I have a good excuse to get violent back at you

Oh no a camera saw SecUnit stealing the flyer!!

Yesssss pirate the pirate ship!!! Nobody is looking for it!!

SecUnit: Fuck I can't kill these fuckers, they're too whiny, and the other rogue SecUnit will be blamed for it

It's honest with Farai and immediately regrets it because awkward and thinks, necer again

But it turns out so well it reconsiders never again xD

SECUNIT TALKED ABOUT FEELINGS TO FARAI

It doesn't want the humans to find the ship again because it deserves a better owner xD

"It's weird how meal and sleep breaks fix a lot of the annoying things about humans." xD

Farai: you're taking me with you, right? SecUnit: uhhhhh

Sofi: are you nervous? SecUnit: I want my lawyer before I'll say anything

Entering a conflict zone... hope nothing additional goes wrong!!

Chapter 9

Emotion check: shit. if I'd already told Farai my stupid plan, we'd be done arguing about it by now. 

Farai: makes a really good point SecUnit: dammit

OH FUCK THE 2.0 PACKAGE MIGHT BE FROM THREE

More Farai and SecUnit honesty 💜💜 And Farai taking about her relationship with Mensah, and referring to SecUnit's relationship to Mensah, and eeeeee!!

Farai: great at helping run cover, love it

Oh no they got to Leonide's family before them ;n;

Oh no dead humans ;n;

OH SHIT THE KIDS ARE ALIVE well guess we can't just go

SecUnit: I *could* tell my humans all the other himans are dead, it would be the safest and most sensible...

But it makes me feel like shit

OR I could alter my memory so that I also believe all the humans are dead, so I won't feel like shit!

OH RISK ASSESSMENT DIDN'T LIKE THAT FOR SOME REASON

"we save our own asses and lie about it and feel bad forever" huh when you put it like that...

"Having someone else support your bad decision feels kind of good." ;u;

Chapter 10

SecUnit: still saving swears for its collection, and it shares its collection with its friends ;u; AMENA MIGHT LIKE IT

Can't take the maintenance tunnels out again, too obvious

Gotta take a more dangerous exit because it's less risky ;u;

"but she immediately clamped on to me like a tentacled parasite in a horror show." xD

It feels good that Mensah told Farai it doesn't like to be touched AND that Farai remembered this while having a panic attack in an emergency

"I make an exception for emergencies" fuck yes you do

Farai: giving the terrified traumagized child a choice, and respecting the child's choice if they want to stay behind ;u;

The kid chooses to go with them! Hooray!

Chapter 11

Militia running security: oh there's two adults with two children, clearly none of these is a rogue SecUnit or anything other than a family fleeing from the new violent conflict happening

Naja might be Farai's mother, or else she's using "daughter" in the same way Thiago used it for Amena.

SecUnit the eternally paranoid: WHAT IF THIS TRAUMATIZED CHILD IS A B-E AGENT xD (Hey I've seen Lineages of the Sun, I know these things happen.)

Naja: go fuck those bastards up, SecUnit

"I'm a concerned bystander" great cover story, SecUnit

SecUnit gets to be honest this time when it says it's a security consultant ;u;

"gun please" xD

OH FUCK THE MAINTENANCE TUNNEL EXITS HERE

Chapter 12

B-E might set off another needle bomb line the one that killed Leonide FUCK

SecUnit: no point in being subtle now

I like that the giant cargo bot is all "hey taking out these B-E assholes is kinda awesome, actually, I'm going to keep doing it"

Boat is leaving with the humans aboard

SECUNITS CAN SQUEEZE LIKE CATS OR MICE INTO TINY AREAS "so I collapsed down my ribcage" WHAT THE SHIT xD Love it, the SecUnit physiology thread is going to have so much fun with this

"this was going to get me shot a lot but that's kind of normal for me" uh-oh that's going to make it harder to get by unnoticed later on c.c

Recovers its limping drone ;u;

Sets off the bomb with as little collateral damage as possible to infrastructure, of course (but, fuck those B-E assholes) 

MAKES IT TO THE BOAT

Naja continues to be awesome "didn't you say you didn't want anyone to be suspicious? So, sit on the fucking mobility device."

Chapter 13

"I made the mistake of getting optimistic" ;u;

SecUnit: *ranting to itself* Emotion check! I'm fine. Really. Fine. 

"Nanna, you're not allowed to ahoot anybody anymore" ANYMORE???

They got a gun from the guards/rent-a-guards!

It doesn't like this new show very much and it's considering switching to Medcenter Argala, SecUnit if you've only watched it once why do you still have it with you? Is it truly just available everywhere and that's why you have it again?

Oh shit RASONS TO SUSPECT JANITY WERE SPOT ON fuck

Poor Janity betrayed Leonide (her mother?), was manipulated by B-E corpos ;n;

"I don't know how much we should tell her remaining relatives" "That sounds like a job for Dr. Mensah" Yeah it really does

Also can I just say that Mensah is apparently going around helping others as much as she can, and fuck the CR goons she may piss off about it, and just. AAHHHHH. I live Mensah so much.

"then we were attacked by raiders but I had weapons and was more than ready to take out my feelings on them so it was so okay I'm not even going to describe it betond this mention"

SecUnit is so fucking done with being in the CR and on this torus

SecUnit really needs a restart to flush its systems ;u;

Three is here! Hooray! Oh by the way it toally gave the hack and 2.0's package to another SecUnit, who has given it to more SecUnits, uh-oh!

SecUnit considers that Three might not even know why it deviated from the plan and went wandering around and gave the bundle to another SecUnit xD

Three's buffer phrases sometimes come out ;u;

OH SHIT Janity's second father!

yeah, fuck, Janity had "betrayed" the safehouses and Leonide to a man who she was supposed to be able to trust ;n;

It pisses SecUnit off to find this out and it's very glad Naja isn't here with a gun to have heard this too

What will Janity choose? To go with the people who have her sister, and I suspect, who have been giving her choices and respecting them

Janity's second father apparently won't do anything... right there, anyways.

Perihelion drone is pissed off at Three xD

SecUnit: that's a you problem, Three: it can't be a we probelm?

"Welcome to the consequences of your actions, Three."

Naja has apparently busted out some booze for herself xD

MENSAH IS ON THE SHUTTLE TOO

Tula and Janity have potentially never seen such displaya of adults crying and hugging before ;n;

SecUnit: alright that's enough emotions and humans and attention for me, thanks, bye

I love so much that it gets to reunite with Mensah and ART at the end ;u;

So I read PD May 4 & 5, and "liveblogged" all my notes in my notes app on my phone. Then I shared some of them in some of the fandom spaces I'm in, but I realized I've never shared them here on Tumblr and that's just sad! So, this'll take a few posts, and I'll put it all behind read more links, here are my Live Reactions to Platform Decay.

Chapter 6

Mobility devices!! Yes oh yes oh yes!!!

SecUni: leave me behind—humans: no fucking way

Yessss SecUnit is totally planning to download and watch children's media :DDD

ROGUE SECUNIT GIVES SECUNIT THE PACKAGE FOR FREEING SECUNITS

SecUnit gives it more useful codes to help it, yesss spread that knowledge around ;u;

Sofi with the heartbreaking questions and SecUnit witnessing the difficult conversations adult humans sometimes have with children in order to explain things to them. Sad but also I LOVE.

The humans are coming up with plans that SecUnit didn't think of, SecUnit gets to experience clever people saving each other and it's a part of that ;u;

Chapter 7

"it was better than a survival bag in space" excellent I can't wait to see what silly word your going to gift us with for what these things do like you did with blorp xD

Awww yay SecUnit gets to recharge via watching an episode of its comfort show :'3

Sofi: yaaay stealing a flyer! SecUnit: yeah, stealing a flyer. Farai and Naja: WTF stealing? We're totally giving it back!

Sofi: what if there are monsters ;n;

The planet has been utterly trashed from being mined ;n;

IT'S BOTHERED LESS BY SOFI FALLING ASLEEP ON IT BECAUSE SHE'S A JUVENILE is this partially why it let Amena make its hair fluffy???

Oh no, torus pirates!

I continue to love Naja, "give me a gun" she's so awesome

It doesn't want Mensah's humans to be afraid of it after it gets violent (and possibly kills) the pirates ;n; so it tries to give them a warning that is about to do so!

Ohhhhh shit, those pirates are leering at Farai

Farai: "I want you to do whatever you have to to keep those motherless shits away from my daughter" AAAHHHHH

Ohfuck SecUnit is EXTREMELY PISSED OFF now, these fuckers are doing piracy for fun! Not out of need!

It *would've* given Farai and Naja guns but doesn't want them to have to handle additional trauma of having killed another person ;n; IT PROTECC

It hasn't even killed the pirates!!

"My attempts at communication so far had been met with blank or incredulous stares" SecUnit are you ever this chatty with them? Ever? xD

Chapter 8

SecUnit: oh shit I'm upside down (well, at least it didn't fall on its face this time)

It gets RIGHT UP BEHIND THE PIRATES lololol

It consisers making a fake throat-clearing noise xD

The humans missed its dramatic entrance oh no

SecUnit: shows the pirates a video of the last time they "helped" people

SecUnit: c'mon just attack me already so I have a good excuse to get violent back at you

Oh no a camera saw SecUnit stealing the flyer!!

Yesssss pirate the pirate ship!!! Nobody is looking for it!!

SecUnit: Fuck I can't kill these fuckers, they're too whiny, and the other rogue SecUnit will be blamed for it

It's honest with Farai and immediately regrets it because awkward and thinks, necer again

But it turns out so well it reconsiders never again xD

SECUNIT TALKED ABOUT FEELINGS TO FARAI

It doesn't want the humans to find the ship again because it deserves a better owner xD

"It's weird how meal and sleep breaks fix a lot of the annoying things about humans." xD

Farai: you're taking me with you, right? SecUnit: uhhhhh

Sofi: are you nervous? SecUnit: I want my lawyer before I'll say anything

Entering a conflict zone... hope nothing additional goes wrong!!

Chapter 9

Emotion check: shit. if I'd already told Farai my stupid plan, we'd be done arguing about it by now. 

Farai: makes a really good point SecUnit: dammit

OH FUCK THE 2.0 PACKAGE MIGHT BE FROM THREE

More Farai and SecUnit honesty 💜💜 And Farai taking about her relationship with Mensah, and referring to SecUnit's relationship to Mensah, and eeeeee!!

Farai: great at helping run cover, love it

Oh no they got to Leonide's family before them ;n;

Oh no dead humans ;n;

OH SHIT THE KIDS ARE ALIVE well guess we can't just go

SecUnit: I *could* tell my humans all the other himans are dead, it would be the safest and most sensible...

But it makes me feel like shit

OR I could alter my memory so that I also believe all the humans are dead, so I won't feel like shit!

OH RISK ASSESSMENT DIDN'T LIKE THAT FOR SOME REASON

"we save our own asses and lie about it and feel bad forever" huh when you put it like that...

"Having someone else support your bad decision feels kind of good." ;u;

Chapter 10

SecUnit: still saving swears for its collection, and it shares its collection with its friends ;u; AMENA MIGHT LIKE IT

Can't take the maintenance tunnels out again, too obvious

Gotta take a more dangerous exit because it's less risky ;u;

"but she immediately clamped on to me like a tentacled parasite in a horror show." xD

It feels good that Mensah told Farai it doesn't like to be touched AND that Farai remembered this while having a panic attack in an emergency

"I make an exception for emergencies" fuck yes you do

Farai: giving the terrified traumagized child a choice, and respecting the child's choice if they want to stay behind ;u;

The kid chooses to go with them! Hooray!

Chapter 11

Militia running security: oh there's two adults with two children, clearly none of these is a rogue SecUnit or anything other than a family fleeing from the new violent conflict happening

Naja might be Farai's mother, or else she's using "daughter" in the same way Thiago used it for Amena.

SecUnit the eternally paranoid: WHAT IF THIS TRAUMATIZED CHILD IS A B-E AGENT xD (Hey I've seen Lineages of the Sun, I know these things happen.)

Naja: go fuck those bastards up, SecUnit

"I'm a concerned bystander" great cover story, SecUnit

SecUnit gets to be honest this time when it says it's a security consultant ;u;

"gun please" xD

OH FUCK THE MAINTENANCE TUNNEL EXITS HERE

Chapter 12

B-E might set off another needle bomb line the one that killed Leonide FUCK

SecUnit: no point in being subtle now

I like that the giant cargo bot is all "hey taking out these B-E assholes is kinda awesome, actually, I'm going to keep doing it"

Boat is leaving with the humans aboard

SECUNITS CAN SQUEEZE LIKE CATS OR MICE INTO TINY AREAS "so I collapsed down my ribcage" WHAT THE SHIT xD Love it, the SecUnit physiology thread is going to have so much fun with this

"this was going to get me shot a lot but that's kind of normal for me" uh-oh that's going to make it harder to get by unnoticed later on c.c

Recovers its limping drone ;u;

Sets off the bomb with as little collateral damage as possible to infrastructure, of course (but, fuck those B-E assholes) 

MAKES IT TO THE BOAT

Naja continues to be awesome "didn't you say you didn't want anyone to be suspicious? So, sit on the fucking mobility device."