Echo In the Machine - Chapter 14
An expanded tale written from prompts while playing ECO MOFOS!!
Start from the beginning of my ECO MOFOS!! Solo Playthrough story HERE!
CHAPTER 14: DEAD WEIGHT
Four hours.
That’s how long it took. Four goddamn hours of stripped wiring, broken circuits, and dented panels that didn’t want to fit back where they came from. Four hours of Siren hunched over the droid with Toad beside her, tools scattered across the bench. Sparks came and went. So did the patience. I had to give them credit. I would’ve given up an hour in.
But I stayed where I was told. Leaning against the scrap pile, arms folded, shifting in place, sitting down, standing up again. Every now and then I’d glance over.
Siren worked like she could see through the metal. Her hands were quick with no wasted movement. Toad, on the other hand, looked like he hated every second of it, but he kept up. He passed her tools and held things steady, grumbling under his breath like it helped the process.
“Don’t force it!” Siren exclaimed at one point.
“I ain’t!” Toad shot back. “Yeah, alright, maybe a little.”
Siren gave him a look. The control board snapped back into place with a dull click. Silence followed… just for a second, then Siren leaned in. She checked something deeper inside the chassis. Her fingers hovered, then adjusted a connector no bigger than a fingernail.
“Try it now,” she said.
Toad flipped a dipswitch on the exposed underside of the main board. A low hum answered. It wasn’t loud enough to draw attention, but it definitely was alive. I straightened just a little without meaning to. Siren didn’t react. She just listened and watched. Almost clocking something in her head.
“OK, diags only,” she said quietly. “Do not wake it up.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Toad muttered.
Lights flickered faint inside the droid’s housing, barely visible through the seams. Siren tracked it all, reading the thing like it was talking to her. A few more double-checks and then she exhaled.
“It’ll work.”
Toad stepped back, wiping his hands on his shirt. “Told you it would.”
“You said it was junk!” she shot back.
He shrugged. “Yeah, well… junk that works is still junk.”
Siren smirked, just a little. Then she stood, rolling her shoulders like she’d been hunched over for way too long.
I pushed off the wall and walked over. “It works, yeah? Let’s get it going then!”
She shook her head. “No. Not here. Not like this.”
Her eyes moved briefly to the Corpos scattered through the shop.
“Too many eyes here to start this up. They’ll take it and you’ll actually get rocksalt in return,” she said quietly.
That was enough for me.
“Then what?” I asked, as Siren’s fingers worked to pull a small chip from the droid’s head unit and tuck it in her pocket.
She nodded toward the cart. “We load it back in and move it. Act like it’s still dead.”
Toad gave the droid one last look, then kicked the wheel of the cart lightly.
“Congratulations,” he muttered. “You’re officially scrap again.”
“Thanks Toad. You’re a sweetheart,” Siren said.
Toad nodded, almost pleased with himself.
We didn’t rush, even under the time crunch. That would’ve been the mistake. Siren took the lead. I kept my hands on the cart, pushing steady. The droid didn’t make a sound. Nothing to give it away.
The checkpoint at the exit looked unremarkable. A Corpo behind a metal desk looking bored like he’d been there all day and planned to be there all night. He looked up when we rolled over. His eyes landed on Siren first.
“Well, hey,” he said, straightening up. “Didn’t think I’d get to talk to you today.”
Siren didn’t miss a beat. “So glad you did, Z.”
Zero smiled at that. The kind of smile that lingered a little longer than it needed to.
“Yeah,” he said, voice cracking a little. “Uh, me too.”
His gaze shifted to the droid as he cleared his throat. He gave it a once-over, slow and casual.
“Couldn’t work your magic?” he asked.
“Nope, not this time,” Siren said, appearing disappointed.
He stepped around the table and went through the motions of an inspection. A tap here. A glance there. You could tell he had no idea what he was doing. He knocked his knuckle against the droid’s side. No response. I kept my face neutral and let him look.
“I guess the core’s dead?” he asked.
“Dead as a doornail,” Siren replied.
He nodded like that confirmed everything he needed to know, then glanced up at me.
“Shame,” he said. “Looks like you might’ve had a nice droid there once.”
“Yeah,” I muttered. “Worth nothing now.”
He chuckled, then glanced back at Siren.
“You know,” he said, lowering his voice just a touch, “if you’re lookin’ to get something more outta this… don’t take this to the trade yard.”
Siren tilted her head. “Oh no?”
“Nope,” he said. “You take that thing over to the other machine shop on the far end? They’ll take it off your hands, no problem.”
Siren shifted her stance and almost took a step closer to Zero. He kept talking.
“Non-working unit that’s already been through here?” he went on. “They don’t even bother trying to fix it. Just strip it and melt it down. You might get more outta it than you think.”
He shrugged like it was nothing.
“Few extra steps,” he added. “But probably worth it.”
I kept my grip on the cart steady, as Siren smiled.
“Well,” she said, “good thing we ran into you then.”
Zero grinned back, clearly pleased with himself.
“Yeah,” he said. “Guess so.” He scanned the droid and tapped a few keys on his terminal.
“I tagged it,” he added. “Other shop’ll be expecting it.”
“Appreciate it, Z.” She gave him a quick wink. “I’ll see you later, okay?”
“Plan on it,” he said as he stepped back to hold the door for us.
“Go on,” he added, flicking a hand toward the corridor. “Let me know what they give ya for it.”
We didn’t waste any time answering. I pushed the cart forward and Siren fell in beside me like nothing about that exchange even mattered. Once we were out of sight, Siren let out a quiet breath.
“Well,” I said. “That worked out.”
She glanced at me sideways. “Yeah.”
I nodded toward the droid. “Guy handed us the route.”
“Yeah,” she repeated.
“What? Too easy?” I asked.
She shook her head slightly. “No,” she said. “Just… funny how things line up.”
We turned down the corridor that led deeper into the Stronghold. Toward the other machine shop. Toward Bob.
The cart rattled softly over the metal floor as we moved. Same pace as before. Just a couple of people hauling dead scrap from one place to another. Nothing to see here. Just a few extra steps.
CHAPTER 13: EIGHTEEN HOURS AND COUNTING | CHAPTER 15 - ABOUT TO BREAK
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