Work Text:
Dell Conagher, more commonly known as ‘the Engineer’ or simply ‘Engi’ walked into the break room and slammed what was left of one of the dozens of sentries he had made onto his worktable with an angry grunt. The slam echoed across the room alerting the rest of the team. Most of them were grabbing something to eat or drink before he came in and paused to watch the frustrated Texan as he sighed, placing his head in his hand, looking at the casing of his weapon.
“Is he going to be, ok?” Jenny, the female Scout, asked as she slowly munched on her sandwich.
“He’s going to be fine,” Jeremy, the Scout, waved his hand dismissively as he picked up one of his sodas. “He sometimes gets like this when something goes wrong,”
The Spy, however, grunted as he watched the engineer not move. “I don’t think so, at least not this time,” he took a drink of his beer. “Look at the way he’s slouched, the head in hand, the tapping. He’s thinking, considering, planning. Not like last time,”
Engi looked over to them. “I can hear you ya know?” he turned back to the scrap on his worktable. “Ever time, every time I set up a sentry, dispenser or teleporter they get trashed quickly. Not long enough to make a difference,”
“Ah don’t say that mate,” Sniper waved his hand. “Your dispensers have helped me out a lot over the fights,”
“Aye,” the Demoman added. “They’re always there when I need more ammo,”
“And ven I’m not there,” the Medic added.
Spy frowned as he noticed that the comments were having no effects. “Why don’t we go to watch the TV?” he suggested. “Engi want to join us?”
The Engineer just waved his hand in a non-committal gesture. With a nod and a look to the Medic, the two ushered the rest of the mercs into the lounge with the Spy not joining them. As the door closed, he looked to the Engineer who still remained seated at the worktable just staring at the remains of the sentry. Slowly, the Spy walked up and stood behind him.
“Dell, is everything alright?” he asked in a soft tone with the hope that the use of Engi’s given name and tone would help the man open up. It paid back.
Saying nothing, Dell went into his jacket and pulled out a letter and handed it to the Spy. Eyeing for a second, he took it and read it. ‘Oh’, was all he said as he read it. It took a moment to fully take in what the letter said and appreciate what the Engineer was going through.
“Y…you have my sympathies,” he said as he handed back the letter.
As the engineer took it, there was a strange aura around him that Spy couldn’t place. Anger? Resentment? Sadness? A combination of the three.
“The worst part of that letter?” the Engineer asked. “I didn’t even know I had a daughter,” he chuckled humourlessly as he crunched the letter in his hand and slammed it down onto the table. “I didn’t even know,” he spoke softly, but that softness had a sharp anger behind it, one Spy knew well.
He looked to the Engineer’s workshop and began to wonder what he planned to do. “How long do you need?”
The Engineer looked to him, but said nothing as he adjusted his goggles. “A day, maybe,”
“I’ll let the others know, take your time my friend. You are a vital part of this team,” Spy smiled.
Engi smiled back but there was little warmth behind it. He just nodded and took what remained of his sentry to his workshop. As the door closed, Ludwig, the Medic, closed the door to the lounge.
“Vell, how bad is it?” he asked, some of his cheery attitude gone.
“His daughter, who he didn’t even know he had, died in a car accident,” Spy said as he lit up a cigarette. “The mother is also in critical condition, but I don’t think he read that part,”
For once, Ludwig couldn’t talk for a moment. “That’s, oh that’s not gud,”
“I know,” the spy agreed as he took a puff. “He’s locked himself inside his workshop, he’s probably not going to be with us tomorrow,”
“Ach, that’s not a problem, we’ve had to deal with that before,” the Medic smiled before dropping it as he looking at the gate. “But vill he be, ok?”
Spy fell silent for a moment before tapping the ash off of his cigarette. “I hope so,”
OOOOO
Engi looked at the parts, playing around with them wondering what to do. Turning a screw around on its head he contemplated the emptiness he now felt. He didn’t even know how to fill something that he wasn’t even aware he had. How do you fix something you didn’t even know was broken? This wasn’t something he knew how to deal with. He dealt with practical problems, not psychological or emotional problems like this.
“What is beauty?” he muttered. “A problem for philosophy,”
He slammed his fist on the table in annoyance and the lack of answers. A small white cube, about the size of a shotgun shell fell onto the table. Looking at it, the blue glow of it caught his eyes. Picking it up he turned it around his fingers, getting a good look at it as the memory of what it was came back. It was an AI core, a piece of tech that was sent to them accidently by Aperture Science. Apparently, these cores didn’t suit what the company was needing.
The way he understood it, these cores acted like small brains with a personality, thoughts desires and emotions. But they were blank and would get their personality when installed in something. According to the manual, they scanned the object that they were installed in and developed a personality from that. That personality would be permanent to that core and couldn’t be transferred. And the core was practically indestructible.
He blinked for a moment before looking up at the other 5 cores an idea coming to mind. He smiled as he cleared the desk and grabbed a sheet of blue paper. Setting the core to one side, he then grabbed a pen and began to draw out several plans.
OOOOO The next day.
As Jenny checked her shotgun, ‘Baby face’s Blaster’, and looked at the door to Engi’s workshop. Being the new girl to the team, due to a cloning accident, she wasn’t used to how everyone operated yet. While she had the same skills as Jeremy her ‘brother’, she didn’t have the same mind or experience as him.
“He’ll be fine love,” the Demoman said as he pattered her shoulder. “Sometimes we need our own time to deal with… well…” he trailed off looking at the door as well.
“Yeah,” she somewhat agreed, knowing what he was getting at.
Spy stepped forward. “So, the plan,” he said as he stepped in front of the team. “Since we are a man down, we need to redefine the defence plan. Heavy, you and Demo guard the intel. Keep and eye out for the Blu Spy,”
“Da/Aye,” the two said.
“Other than that, the attack plan is the same as before,” he continued as he spun the cylinder of his revolver. “Let’s go,” he declared as he led them to the Teu-fort base.
Thanks to a well-rehearsed plan, it didn’t take the team long to arrive at Teu-fort and get set up. They were professionals after all. If they couldn’t be ready shortly after arriving, they couldn’t call themselves professional mercenaries. As soon as The Administrator called for the fight to begin RED team moved quickly.
The two scouts, followed by the Sniper and Soldier, ran out onto the balcony before jumping onto the bridge and running towards the Blu base. After firing a few rockets, Soldier quickly joined them while the Sniper covered all three of them. Below them, the Pyro and Spy ran across as well with the latter being invisible.
While that was going on, the Heavy and Demoman made their way down to the intel room. Normally, defence would be handled by the Engineer, but because he wasn’t there, they had to deal with defence now. And not for the first time. Illness tends to be the biggest thing that knocks one of the team on their asses, so it wasn’t a problem for the two as they readied themselves by placing beer on the table and ammo cases to the corner of the intel room.
“So, what do you think?” Demoman asked as he popped open a beer bottle and taking a swing.
“It’s sad,” Heavy replied. “He lost someone,”
Demo nodded. “Aye, the hardest part of being a father,” he agreed. “But not to know you even had one? That’s…” he shook his head.
“Da, cruel,” Heavy agreed as he tested Sasha’s barrels and rotation mechanism.
Demo did the same with his grenade launcher making sure it was loaded and that the rotation mechanism wouldn’t jam. While they were in the middle of a battle, that didn’t mean that they shouldn’t keep their weapons in top condition. In these battles with Blu, there was always lulls in the battle as both sides regrouped, replanned and redeployed. That and there were also the lunch breaks, which both sides called for a truce and ate.
Some time passed as the two checked their weapons and kept an eye out for someone to approach. Which didn’t take long. A man in a hard had, brown jacket and a safety glove on the left hand walked up.
“Howdy partner,” the Engineer smiled as he approached the two.
“Engie?” Demoman asked with a smile. “You’re back,”
“Yeah, we need more people up front,” he replied.
With a nod, the two made their way out leaving the Engineer in the room. Smiling, the Engineer approached the briefcase filled with intelligence of Red’s plans for future operations. Filled military, civil and businesses ideas. A chuckled escaped his lips as he was about to grab it. A loud band and a shooting pain though his body stopped him in his tracks.
Looking down, he spotted several holes in his body from a shotgun shell. That turned off the Spy’s disguise kit as he turned to face the Heavy and Demoman looking at him with sadistic glee.
“Ah merde,” the Spy muttered before the sticky bombs below him turned him into a pink mist.
Demo and Heavy high-fived each other pleased with ambushing the ambusher. “Nice try ya cheap suited fraud,” Demo laughed.
OOOOO Later that day.
“Ugh that was a tough one,” Jenny said as she cracked her neck. “We almost lost it, and our bonus,”
“Shame hardhat wasn’t there to see it,” Jeremy added as he and his ‘sister’ made their way to the fridge while the other’s packed their equipment into the lockers. “Anyway, want go on a date?” he smiled.
Jenny looked to him with an unimpressed look before kicking him in the nuts. “No,” she said flatly as he squealed in pain.
“Good shot,” Sniper said as he joined her and grabbed a beer. “Seems like the Engineer’s been busy,” he noted at the lack of food.
Jenny nodded as she looked toward the Engineer’s workshop as she grabbed a soda and a pot noddle.
“He’ll be fine,” Spy said as he stood next to her. “It’s not the first time he’s done something like this,” he puffed on his cigarette. “It’s his outlet, the way he finds comfort and well something he likes,”
“Aye,” Demo joined in as he took a drink. “He’s got 11 PHD’s after all, a guy like that needs to used their brain and their hands,” he winked at her as he headed for the lounge.
Jenny nodded but wasn’t completely convinced. “Sure,” she muttered as she made her way to the lounge.
OOOOO The next day
As the team checked their equipment, the door to Engi’s workshop opened up and the Engineer walked out.
“Hey yall,” he smiled.
“Engineer,” Heavy smiled as he came up and hugged the Texan. “Good to see you,”
“Hey, same, put me back down please,” the Engineer coughed before he was placed down. “Sorry for yesterday,” he rubbed the back of his neck.
“Ahhh, it’s ok lad,” the Demoman smiled waving his hand before his voice turned sombre. “We heard from the Doctor,”
The Engineer nodded at that. “I figured, but getting back on topic,” he then held up a metal box. “I do have a favour though,” the team shrugged and nodded. “Let some of the Blu’s come down to the intel room. I have…” he paused thinking about the right word. “Something to test on them,”
He got sadistic smiles as a response.
Sometime later, Blu Team POV
Demo lead the charge into the Red Team’s base. Joined with two Soldiers and a Scout, the four of them made it across the bridge from the room and onto the Red’s balcony. The Scout quickly took out the Sniper while the two Soldiers cleared the lobby outside the resupply room of the Red Team. Without waiting for them to respawn, the four then made their way down the corridors leading to the intel room.
About halfway down, they stopped and waited to see if there was any pursuit. After a few moments, there wasn’t making the Demoman smiled. With a quick motion of hand, the four moved further into the compound. As they reached the end and into the basement proper, the Demoman looked back, his brow furrowing with confusion. The Red Team didn’t take this long to respond. That rubbed him the wrong way as Scout approached the intel room.
His back was against the wall with the double-barrelled soda popper ready for action. “I’m not hearing anything cyclops,” he said making the Demoman’s eyes roll.
“No sentries?” the Soldier with a beard asked. “Strange,”
“Not really,” the other said, this one in a flack vest. “There was no Engineer yesterday,”
Demo nodded in agreement, but couldn’t get rid of the feeling that something was wrong. “Scout, Solder 1, go that way,” he pointed to one entrance. “Me and Solider 2 will go this way,”
The three nodded and split up. As they entered the intel room, they spotted engineer tuning his guitar. Confusion spread across the 4 Blu mercs as they looked to one another. With a shrug, they raised their weapons, preparing to kill him, but the smile on the Engineer was unsettling.
“Good, you’ve arrived,” he smiled as he set the guitar to the side and reached out to pick up a red box. “I wanted you to meet someone,” he set the box down.
“Who? Another one of your toys?” Demo asked.
“Not quite,” Engineer said as he backed up and the box opened up.
The four backed up, eyes widening as they watched the new ‘toy’ unfurl. It was human like with two arms and two legs and stood 4,11. It had a red alarm light on top with a band on both sides of its head, making it look like it was wearing a headband. It had red hair with red and white checkered clips on the sides of its hair. The face of it was white, like a porcelain mask with one eye being an orange crosshair while the other was a red eye, similar to a sentry’s sensor camera. It had a mouth that was curved into a mischievous smile with a fanged tooth protruding from one side.
The segmented torso had a similar look to the Engineers’ overalls but ended in a black dress with a red and black checkerboard trim. Her legs were black and rectangular, ending in a flat bottom. But it was the arms that got the groups attention. The left had ended in a 5 fingered hand while the right ended in a sentry turret gun.
Upon seeing the new creation, it took the 4 several moments to register before Demo started laughing with the other three joining in.
“What’s this now?” he asked looking at the robot. “Aww whats…” he began but the robot looked up at him and turn angry, it’s face barring a ‘mouth’ full of sharp teeth.
It pounced on him, pushing him back and knocking him over before slamming her fists into his face before unloading a couple of rounds, killing him. The two Soldiers then turned to the robot bring their rocket launchers up. The Engineer grabbed the nearest one’s rocket launcher and the two struggled while the robot jumped at the other as he fired a rocket. She landed on him and wrapped her legs around his neck and began to beat him on the head.
Engi then managed to pull the rocket launcher off of the Soldier and took it away as he advanced on him pulling out his wrench. The soldier went for his shovel, but the Engineer moved faster and struck the soldier across the face. The other Soldier, however, as having problems getting the robot off of his head. He yelled out as he slammed his back in the wall trying to dislodge the robot. But it didn’t budge.
“Get off me you rust bucket,” he yelled as he left the intel room and ran to the wall at the far end in an effort to get the robot off.
It didn’t work as it saw what he was planning and jumped off. The Soldier slammed into the wall head first. Dazed, he stumbled around in a drunken like fashion as the robot raised its weapon arm and fired. The round caused the Soldiers head to explode. The robot smiled, which didn’t last.
“ALTERT, THE BLUE TEAM HAS OUR INTELIGANCE!” an announcer said.
Tuning around, the robot spotted the Scout as he exited the intel room. He didn’t stop as he fired at her and turned to leave via the other exit. One of the pellets hit the robot in the arm causing it to spark. Gritting its teeth, she pushed forward chasing the scout.
Red Team POV.
As several members of the team respawned, the announcement of their stolen intel echoed in their ears.
“Shit,” Jeremy cursed as he and Jenny grabbed their shotguns and ran out outside the supply room.
“Which way?” Jenny asked as she, Jeremy and Heavy looked from one entrance to the other.
“There!” heavy yelled at the blue streek of a blue scout came out from the other side of the courtyard.
Reacting quickly, both Red scouts fired their scatter guns at the intruder. The girl of the two pointed to the grate room. The Heavy nodded and moved off. While the majority of the shot pellets missed, a few found their mark and hit the Blu scout in the leg causing him to fall. He slammed into the wall, but bounced off and recovered quickly. He fired back at them preventing the two from getting a good shot. Jenny cursed as she got shot while Jeremy got hit in the head and fell down dead.
“Great,” she sarcastically moaned, cursing the 15 second spawn penalty.
She was about to make a suicide run, when the sound of clanking met her ears. Looking to the other intel entrance her eyes widened as a red coloured robot jumped out and aimed itself at the blue Scout. The Jeremy clone panicked and fired at the robot managing to hit it a couple of times before it landed crushing his head. With that, it collapsed onto its knees holding onto its arm. Blinking, Jenny moved down to the robot.
“Hey are you okay?” she asked as she got a better look at it.
It had the appearance of a 12-year-old with its form being reminiscent of the Engineer. Especially with her left forearm and hand being yellow, mimicking the Engineers glove.
The robot looked up at her. “Bepbep,” she ‘said’ as her mouth opened.
Jenny smiled with a chuckle. So, this robot could mimic a lot of human actions. She reached out and helped the robot to her feet as Jeremy came out.
“Ok, where’s the…” he trailed off as he spotted Jenny and the bot. “What’s going on?” he asked as he joined them with the Heavy joining them. “Whos’ this?”
“Beep beep,” the bot said with a smile and wave.
“Not sure,” Jenny shrugged. “But I have a feeling that she is Engie’s latest creation.”
The robot’s head tilted with a smile as an explosion came from the stairs leading to the intelligence. A Soldier jumped out of the entrance and landed on the dirt of the courtyard.
“Eat that,” he shot back towards the entrance before turning to look at the Red team raising their weapons at him. “You are sc…” he tried to say before shells and bullets turned him into Swiss cheese.
The engineer soon came out limping. “Howdy, fellers,” he waved.
“Beep,” the robot yelled, waving to him with her good arm.
Smiling, Engi moved down to join them.
“I’m damn proud of ya,” Engie said as he hugged the robot, fatherly pride with how many blues she managed to kill.
“Does she have a name?” Jenny asked.
“Yeah, Mimi,” Engi smiled.
OOOOO Back at base.
“Can she have beer?” Jenny asked as she was grabbing the drinks for the team.
They didn’t win this time, but their new member, Mimi, more than pulled her weight and gained her spot. So, the team decided to celebrate.
“No, she can have soda and food, though,” Engi smiled. “She can… well, digest food and other things as a power resource,”
“Beep?” Mimi questioned.
“You’ll be fine,” Engie said as he made his way to his workshop. “Enjoy your party,”
“Beep,” she responded and followed Jenny carrying the food for the party.
Engi however walked into his workshop looking at plans for his other robots.