#will make my /other/ post about murderbot having people rescue it when i'm less tired. for now: this

[cephaliarch]

Was skimming through Network Effect looking for something for another post I wanted to make, and came across this part again:

Ahead I saw more light and a foyer for a stairwell. I lurched into the foyer just as an armored SecUnit dropped down onto the landing.

I almost triggered both my energy weapons but just in time I saw the sticker on its helmet. In compressed machine language, somebody had used marker paint to write “ART sent me.” This was 2.0′s SecUnit 3.

The opaque helmet focused on me. It said, “I’ve never retrieved another SecUnit before. There is no protocol for this.”

And I was just so immediately endeared by Three all over again. Imagine being in Murderbot’s situation through that whole scene. You’re having the worst fucking day of your life. You’re either going to die horribly or worse, get your brain taken over. You’re running for your life but you know it’s pretty hopeless.

AND THEN some stranger just drops down out of a stairwell with a note that it's here to save you plastered on its forehead, says, “I don’t know what the fuck I’m doing,” then proceeds to leap past you to blast the ceiling down like a badass to block an incoming enemy and grabs you and runs.

Incredible. Three is so good and it’s doing SUCH (genuinely) a good job. There is no protocol for this but damn it it’s gonna get it done.