The shuttle landed in the bay with a cacophony of clattering and hydraulic whines. The Bunker was designed to take in live specimens, but it happened so rarely that the systems had all but begun to atrophy. It was a surprise they still worked, let alone that anybody remembered how to operate them.
“It was a fantastic job on your part to capture it alive,” Commander White saluted 2B and 9S perfunctorily. “Even if you are top-class field operatives, the ‘alive if possible’’ designation was filed more as a suggestion than a command.”
2B saluted back immediately, 9S after a moment and with a bit of sarcasm.
“Any time a non-machine animal shows aggression toward androids, successful living captures become a vanishingly rare eventuality. You’ve both performed far above expectations.”
“Surely you only asked us because you assumed we could get it done?” 9S asked with a grin that suggested the notion of them failing was comical.
“You received the assignment because you were in the area and it was a high priority.” Commander white looked at him flatly, “Even if models showed you two having the highest likelihood of mission success, they still put a live capture as less likely than the total loss of both units.”
“Commander, our battle with the animal didn’t suggest capabilities that made total loss a possibility,” 2B responded stiffly, “It would be worth reviewing the records of its previous attacks. The model was wrong.”
“I’ve reviewed the records enough, due to their nature they are Sensitive Compartmented Information.” Commander White’s tone became stern, “Your access to records kept by Type-R and Type-Z units is need-to-know.”
“Potentially sending us to our deaths seems pretty need-to-know,” 9S scoffed.
“Commander, if all previous attacks were on science-class androids, why would the models suggest high danger to a battle-class and scanner?” 2B ignored him.
“The beast is documented to have stalked and evaded previous units in a way that suggested extremely high intelligence,” The commander softened, “Any time humanlike intelligence is demonstrated by an organism, its threat level is placed at maximum until such a time as we can prove it shouldn’t be.”
9S gave 2B a look, which for once she met.
“Even with the element of surprise, it shouldn’t have been a mechanical possibility for it to destroy a unit, regardless of type.” 9S pushed.
“You should know as well as anybody that ‘loss beyond recovery’ does not solely describe destruction in combat.” Commander White looked down her nose at him, “Such as when you hacked into a machine database which obstructed your communications with the base. Several failed return signals designated you as a loss.”
“Some communication in that case would have avoided a lot of trouble, 2B could have told you I was fine,” 9S protested, “I don’t particularly like experiencing a remote kill command without knowing-”
“As her scanner unit, your failure to respond marked 2B as also lost.” The commander seemed to have settled on making an example out of him for arguing, “Any compromise to your system security leaves her vulnerable, and either of you bringing vulnerabilities aboard is something we can less afford than manufacturing replacements for the pair of you. Do I make myself clear?”
“Yes, commander,” 2B bowed before 9S could protest.
“We assigned you to retrieval because we expect you two to take risks, calculated ones,” She jabbed a finger at 9S. He saluted loosely but refused to bow. “There was no implicit risk in the work the units it previously attacked were doing, but they wound up designated as losses. I have no interest in arguing or explaining our systems of risk assessment beyond that.”
“Yes, commander,” 9S sighed. You didn’t win arguing upwards.
Commander White cooled down a bit and both 2B and 9S relaxed, but not before 2B shot 9S a particularly harsh glance. She was a kiss ass, there weren’t many better ways to put it. Or maybe there were. She didn’t suck up so much, she just did her job exactly how they told her to do it when they told her to do it and she didn’t argue back even when they were wrong or screwing her over. She didn’t like being chastised or chewed-out, she didn’t like things slowing her down or interfering with her work even in microscopic ways, and seemingly the only thing she ever worked for or got off on was the person telling her to kiss their boots informing her that her lips had done a good job cleaning them.
If there was a better term for that than kiss-ass, he’d need more time to come up with it.
“Either way,” Commander White finally continued, “You’ll be finding out exactly what the thing’s real threat level should be. I want you both to head down to research to look into it.”
“Commander, neither of us are trained in research work.” 2B saluted but protested, at least as much as you could protest without actually offering any resistance.
“This is a rare situation, but in the case of a live specimen like this which we’ve designated a maximum-level threat, any direct study has to be done either by or in the presence of combat-certified androids.” The commander shrugged, “The specimen will be heavily sedated, and you’ll likely just be overseeing as a Type-R does the work-”
“Commander, forgive me, but I was hoping for a chance to relax after our time in the field.” 2B’s voice wasn’t protesting, he realized, almost more… pleading? “For every twenty-four hours in the field, we are supposed to be allotted two hours of personal time. Perhaps we could delay this until after that?”
“This work will be regarded as taking place in your personal time slot,” The commander said flatly.
“Bullsh*t!” 9S yelped. 2B flinched, but he wasn’t sure if it was from what the commander had said or his yelling, “If you’re calling it work, how can you justify cutting into our personal time with it?”
“Your designations specify twenty-four hours of certified work, which you’ve done. But neither of you are certified for research work, so this is designated in the same way we would record a unit receiving training in another discipline.”
“Yes, commander,” 2B saluted, though 9S could make out consternation on her face. He watched her turn on her heel the second the commander had dismissed them and start making her way toward the research division. He had to struggle to keep up.
“Can you believe that?” 9S sighed when he had fallen in behind her.
2B didn’t respond, if anything, she just started walking faster. 9S couldn’t tell if she was mad at the commander or…
“Hey, you don’t think this is my fault, do you?” He protested, “The commander does things like this even when she isn’t mad at me, don’t blame me here.”
She just kept walking, 9S couldn’t get a good enough look at her face to see her expression, but he was pretty sure she was scowling.
“I’m not sure what you’re upset about, what do you even do in your free time anyway?” He pestered.
“What I want to, usually,” She responded hotly without slowing down.
“Look, if you’re trying to get it over with as quick as possible, don’t bother. Knowing the commander, the better plan would be to try to drag it out long enough that it cuts into our next work assignment.”
“If those are the kind of calculations that go into your decision-making, I understand why the commander mistrusts you.”
“I’m serious, this isn’t my fault!” He sped up enough to get in front of her, but he was surprised to see she looked more depressed than angry. “That’s just how the commander is sometimes.”
“So it would seem,” 2B responded in a voice that was completely void of emotion, despite her face.
They had arrived at research, which was lit up in a way that designated it was restricted, but as soon as they were in range, the doors hissed open.
There were a couple different science androids gathered around the containment cell with the specimen, looking through the alloy glass and chattering to themselves in fascination. It wasn’t like any other animal in the catalog, they could safely rely on that. It was like a wolf in some ways, but it was giant, bipedal, and had clawed hands with opposable thumbs and impressive manipulation capabilities. They had put in several different items, seemingly unable to decide if it would best amuse itself with children’s playthings, dog toys, or a salt lick. It was able to pick up and investigate all three with human-like dexterity, but what it decided to do with those things afterwards was usually either to sniff it, chew it, or both.
“Battle-Type android is present in the lab,” One of the scientists announced over the lab comms, “All androids who lack clearance for experiment viewing are asked to vacate.”
The huddle of scientists turned and looked at 2B and 9S in an almost resentful way, all but two or three of them shuffling out of the lab. When the doors hissed shut again, the sudden lack of noise was palpable. At least for a moment.
“2B!”
One of the remaining research androids stepped forward and bowed. She was short, shorter even than 9S, with shaggy red hair and a research scope built into a pair of glasses. She was also thin, even by the standards of androids built to waste absolutely nothing in terms of space and material. When she offered a hand, it was practically skeletal, but her skin was rosier than either 2B’s or 9S’s, making it look like she had a permanent full-body blush.
“Ah,” 2B gave a very short and awkward handshake, “9S, this is 5R.”
“When I heard we took the specimen alive, I knew it had to be you!” 5R gushed, barely even glancing at 9S. “But I never dreamed you’d be the one coming down here to do my research with me!”
“This will be coming out of our off-time,” 2B responded flatly.
“I know, I know,” 5R filibustered as she gestured toward the thing in the cage excitedly, “The last thing you want to do when you could be relaxing is spend time down in the lab poking and prodding the big fuzzy thing you just fought, but this is the opportunity of a lifetime! I’ll give the commander my highest commendations of your work. I’ll see to it you never have to work down in the labs again! You know, unless you want to.”
“That’s very kind of you-” 9S started.
“Hold on, I need to put the lab in lockdown mode!” 5R started jogging away. “I can’t wait another second to get started on this!”
5R started furiously interfacing with the computers on the other end of the lab, shuttering viewports, locking doors, tightening hatches. 2B looked at her, sighed, and clasped her hands behind her back as she waited.
“She’s nice,” 9S teased.
“She’s… intense…” 2B responded softly.
“Sorry, you find somebody intense?” He pushed, “You scared she’s going to attack? Betray us? Ask you on a date?”
“People who take more joy in their work than their leisure… concern me.” 2B responded flatly.
“As opposed to taking joy in neither, which is normal, I guess.” 9S sighed performatively.
“Okay, ohmygosh, sorry,” 5R came bolting back and started to interface with the terminal in front of the cage even more aggressively. “So here’s the deal. We’ve got this thing on the absolute strongest sedatives we have. It probably shouldn’t even still be breathing, let alone awake!”
“Can’t you just like… double the dose?” 9S looked at the animal nervously.
“What? No!” 5R scowled, “Double the dose of a sedative doesn’t make a stronger sedative, it mostly just makes poison. Chemicals aren’t food.”
“How about a dose of a second sedative then?” 9S shrugged angrily, “I don’t know, I’m assuming we’re going to have to get in there with it.”
“You’re coming up with a bunch of ways to make poison,” 5R rubbed the bridge of her nose like she was trying to explain it to a child, “Look, it doesn’t matter. We’ve simulated android stimuli in the containment and none of them make it attack, so it’s probably just kinda… drunk…”
“Drunk?” 9S yelped indignantly.
“Even when we began combat with it, the creature didn’t engage in direct attacks.” 2B cut off further protest. “A lack of direct attack does not mean it is safely sedated, perhaps just considering a longer game.”
“Right, but if it is, that’s human-like intelligence, and that’s even better!” 5R saw the worried look on their faces and changed course, “We have a bunch of failsafes in place. The second either of you is in actual danger, we’re ready to euthanize the target if need be.”
“Wouldn’t it be easier to replace us than the target?” 9S huffed.
“Easier? Yes.” 5R responded casually, “But ethically, I couldn’t allow it.”
“Unless you got the order to allow it,” 9S murmured.
“I guess?” 5R scowled, “But command only intervenes in studies when it’s a matter of security.”
“Comforting,” 2B responded flatly.
“Look, don’t get dissuaded,” 5R pulled up a scan of the monster in containment and pointed to a red line running up the spine, “We’ve found tech implants inside of it, so 9S should be able to interface and block any attacks.”
“I’ll have to operate on absolute maximum security,” He sighed. “Getting hacked on The Bunker doesn’t just screw me, it screws the whole site.”
“Oh?” 5R’s face scrunched up guiltily. “We uh… already scanned it for outgoing signals, it’s an internal circuit only.”
“You already scanned it?” 2B and 9S both yelped.
“Our lab auto-scans everything in the cage!” 5R raised her hands defensively.
2B’s hands balled up into fists. After a second, 9S laughed.
“I don’t ever want to hear from the commander that I’m not cautious enough after hearing that.”
“The Bunker probably has firewalls or something!” 5R protested, “We don’t get hijacked by every Machine that gets sent up!”
“We don’t send Machines up,” 2B sighed.
“Look,” 5R blanched, “How about we just don’t tell the commander about this one, huh?”
“I don’t know,” 9S teased, “Maybe she’ll be so happy we caught the science team’s negligence that she’ll let us off of research duty.
The two girls both turned and glared at him.
“Or maybe she’ll reassign the job to another scientist who cares less about our safety.” 2B kept looking at him coldly.
“Exactly!” 5R grasped for the liferaft she was being given, “Look, you have my word that I’ll do everything in my power to keep you guys safe from outside the cage.”
9S was going to push and protest further but 2B set a hand firmly on his shoulder and started to force him out of the room into the transitional area between the lab and the cage.
“Alright, what’s the angle?” 9S lifted her hand off of her shoulder and followed her into a decontamination chamber.
“What do you mean?”
“First she concerns you, then when you get a legitimate reason to back out, you’re gung-ho to get in the chamber?”
“Her enthusiasm for her work concerns me, I do not doubt her proficiency for it.” 2B kept her face turned, but 9S felt he was being judged regardless, “It is possible to separate the quality of somebody’s work from their attitude toward it.”
“Why do I feel insulted?”
“Because it was in reference to you,” The chamber door opened, “I can only wish your attitude was as adequate as your scanning.”
“Adequate?” He stayed back in the chamber for a moment, glaring daggers at 2B’s back as she went into the chamber, “You know, it’s my adequate scanning that might be what keeps this thing from attacking us.”
“If adequate scanning is the difference between being attacked and not, then I don’t need anything more than adequate,” 2B said it without a hint of passion or malice.
The creature, though its eyes were noticeably glazed, was just as intimidating as he’d been the first time 9S saw him. He was a little taller than 9S standing on 2B’s shoulders. Covered in thick, wet black fur. He’d been pretty muddy and scuffed when they’d loaded him aboard, and it looked like the science team had hosed him down, which couldn’t have been improving his mood. Teeth jutted in places along his pointed snout and he had surprisingly nasty claws on his feet. Even with his fur, he was visibly a little thin, but still bulky. And with his slow, sedated breaths he seemed to inflate so large he filled the room before shrinking back to just mostly filling it again. He radiated heat that 9S could feel outside of arm’s reach, and couldn’t help but dwell on the reality that it could have easily killed either of them. It hadn’t put up much of a fight, but it clearly could have. It also smelled worse than when they’d taken it in.
“Testing, testing,” 5R’s voice came tinnily through a speaker hidden somewhere in the containment.
“We can hear you,” 2B was keeping her distance from the best, but staring it down like she was sizing it up.
“You’re sure it’s sedated?” 9S found the far wall of the cage with his back and kept pressed against it.
“Go up and punch it if you aren’t sure.” 5R sounded annoyed.
2B stepped up and reached out a hand. 9S braced for impact, but as she touched it and started to stroke the fur on one of its arms, the beast leaned down and sniffed at her without any real interest. There was a strand of drool hanging several inches from its jowls, and the eyes were facing a near perfect ninety degrees in either direction. They were cloudy, unsensing. It was only upright and awake by sheer power alone, there was no more thought going on in its head than there was in the upholstery. 9S followed up and reached out to touch its snout. A big, floppy red tongue brushed against his hand lazily.
“He seems harmless,” 2B commented flatly.
“Yeah, I’d say so,” 9S agreed.
“Excellent, now, 9S, please get started trying to interface with his internal wiring. 2B, if you could start by describing his fur as best you can.”
9S stepped back and watched 2B continue to stroke the beast’s arm. He reached out and found what he was looking for, approaching it slowly, circling around it. It was like a bundle of tangled strings. He could pull and pull and pull at any one entry point, but it wouldn’t mean he was getting anywhere. As he turned it over and over in his mind, he found what looked like the end of one of the strands and started tugging on that, watching it unkink from all of the other parts. As soon as it was free, he found an incredibly basic level of access unfurl in front of him. He could open and close pores, slightly increase or decrease the sensitivity of a couple senses. The kind of thing that could give you a huge edge in a fight if you were creative, but weren’t all that valuable in any other case. As soon as that strand was free, the object seemed to shudder and lock back into place, tighter than before. He sighed and started turning it again, looking for a new end to pull at. He had to be slow, too. Triple-check everything you touch, constantly look over your shoulder to see if the strings you’ve already removed had started to move around on their own. The cluster hierarchy wasn’t something most anybody used now, since there was always at least one point of failure, but it made for a great structure to hide traps and pitfalls in.
“Its fur is oily, more so than I thought it would be,” 2B stroked its arm idly. “I had theorized that once clean, it would either be soft or coarse, but the creature seems to have highly active sweat glands that make its fur a natural insulator.”
“Yes, we’ve observed the high sweat production,” 5R murmured.
“I can tamp that down if you want, I have access to its pores already,” 9S bragged.
“Why would you want to?” 5R didn’t sound impressed.
“Well it smells awful, for one.” He scowled.
“I find the smell… pleasant,” 2B continued stroking the beast’s arm.
“Is your nose broken, or is this a battle-type thing I don’t understand?” 9S scrunched up his face.
“It could be a pheromone situation,” 5R theorized. “We’re pretty sure the beast is male, and if so, it would probably smell better to 2B than it would to you.”
“Why would an android be susceptible to an animal’s musk?” 9S looked up at where he was pretty sure 5R was, “Even a human’s musk-”
“The bodies you two use while up here are non-standard.” 5R explained. “Certain things which would be detrimental in the field, such as increased physical sensitivity or procreation-related impulses, are automatically suppressed when out of a short-range signal being broadcast through The Bunker. This is probably pretty new for 2B, though the records indicate that you tend to spend your free time up here-”
“Yeah, I got it,” 9S cut her off. “So, what? We just assume because 2B is weird that this thing is male?”
2B reached out between the creature’s legs into a tuft of black fur, she pulled a pair of massive fuzzy black balls forward for both 9S and 5R to see. Each of them was a little bigger than her head.
“He’s male,” She said emotionlessly.
“Fascinating, I”m curious why we don’t see a sheath. It could be hidden in his fur, or perhaps the human parts of his genetic makeup means it’s down more where a human’s co*ck would be.” 5R didn’t seem at all concerned with how 2B was acting.
9S freed another string, and this one had a lot more to it than he expected. The ball was about half unwound, but he saw neurons dully flashing and connecting, as well internal co*cktails being brewed and spread slowly. Normally, brain function this intimate, this low-level, would be the final string to come undone. But it made a sort of sense considering the beast in question, at least assuming you weren’t creative about things. Somebody had probably assumed that without actually piloting the muscles, you couldn’t make the monster do what you wanted. But there was a basic group of puppet strings you could work with the right mindset. Pump it full of adrenaline and rage at the sight of somebody you wanted dead, make it happy to see you in particular.
“Interesting,” 9S commented, “I have access to a lot of the important internal systems at this point.”
“That was fast,” 5R sounded disinterested.
“It’s primitive and small scale.” 9S explained and 2B got a phial from the wall and collected the strand of drool the monster was producing. “This is a dumb animal through and through, the circuitry is designed to give it patterns of intelligence but it doesn’t actually… have them.”
“What do you mean?” 2B asked professionally.
“I mean in the way that you having a sword doesn’t make you sharp. Or how your pod can translate other languages but that doesn’t mean you or the pod speak them. There’s a more technical term for it…”
“It sounds like you’re botching the explanation for a Chinese Room situation,” 5R sounded annoyed.
“Probably,” 9S shrugged. “Things like fighting and hunting are instinctual, it knows how to do them. Stalking and ambushing like it’s done against androids aren’t, that’s the chipset telling it what to do. Take out the current chipset and replace it with any other and it’ll have no idea how to do them. Even if there is human DNA in it, it’s not… people? There’s no person at the core. It’s an animal.”
“What purpose would a chipset that makes it attack androids serve?” 5R asked to nobody in particular.
“That seems obvious…” 2B sighed as she collected a fur sample and dropped the baggie containing it into a chute, “But who’s controlling it?”
“There are no signals coming into it, and there isn’t even the infrastructure to receive and translate any signals.” 9S frowned as he pulled the last few strings apart. There really was no core, just a pile of disconnected strings now. “It’s fully autonomous.”
“Interesting, that would suggest it isn’t Machine-based.” 5R’s end of the conversation was interrupted by a ping as the fur came through on her end. “Or if it is, they simply finished work on it, pointed it in a direction, then gave it the last order it was ever supposed to get.”
“There are no machine footprints in the code, and it’s old too. That doesn’t rule out machines, but it’s unlike them to use programming they don’t understand. Could be an experiment of some kind.”
“Not by us or by machines? Who from then?” 5R sounded annoyed again, either like 9S’s theory was terrible or she wished somebody else had proposed it.
“Who knows? I’d buy there being a source outside of our knowledge over the machines deciding to plug and play with whatever random circuits and code they found.” 9S shrugged.
“Anything that exists without YoRHa’s knowledge exists without its consent.” 5R scoffed, “Let’s try to keep theories about where it comes from to ourselves before command tells us to euthanize it right away.”
“I’d rather not euthanize it,” 2B had finished a lot of the basic measurements and had gone back to stroking the creature’s arm. “I admire it.”
“You admire it?” 9S asked incredulously.
“It has such magnificent strength and speed, but it’s raw. Even basic, primitive code can turn it into one of the most dangerous creatures in existence.” She continued to stroke it, looking up into its hazy, crossed eyes, “It’s like steel which has only been partially forged.”
“So when you took offense to me saying the only thing battle androids appreciated was force, that was you talking out of your ass?” 9S snorted.
“No, she’s got a point,” 5R said adoringly. 9S suspected that 2B could have said that it should be the new commander and 5R would have heard her out, “If it’s as capable as you say of dealing with androids, imagine what it could do for us if we controlled it.”
“Well, there’s your motive for machines plugging random software into it,” 9S scowled.
“Based on what you see inside of it, how feasible would you say control is?” 5R asked him.
“Based on that? Impossible.” He folded his arms, “Like I said, it’s primitive to the point of not even being that useful. I can make it sleepy, but I can’t put it to sleep. I can lead it to water, but I can’t make it drink. We could point him at a machine and make him furious, but at that point we might as well be taming bulls.”
“If we replaced his circuits-” 5R started.
“At that point, we might as well just be working on another android from scratch, right?” 9S shrugged.
“Not entirely,” 2B interjected, “This one may be a waste, but if we could find others of his species…”
“Yeah, no problem, just gotta wait for another one of his kind to appear and start attacking androids, then hope he’s got different wiring.” 9S rolled his eyes.
“Actually, we could breed more of this specimen if we were so inclined,” 5R sounded somewhere between sheepish and lecherous.
“With what female?” 9S frowned.
“With any android we wanted.” 5R explained. “A sem*n sample would allow us to sequence and clone ova cells, which could be implanted into synthetic wombs or lab incubators. It almost never comes up, but androids are capable of carrying basically anything to term. Several years ago, a couple of species were saved from extinction this way.”
“A sem*n sample…” 9S gulped.
“I’ll do it,” 2B nodded.
“For the glory of mankind, right?” 9S quipped before he had even thought it over.
“Yes. Though I’m also… curious as to what this thing is capable of.” 2B didn’t seem phased.
It stung more than 9S had expected it to. He couldn’t quite pinpoint why. 2B was cold, seemingly disinterested in sex or anything relating to it no matter how much 9S tried to tease or push it out of her. Hell, it didn’t even seem like there was anything she did for fun. If this was going to be the first time she was going to be enthusiastic about something he knew about, did it have to be f*cking a literal animal while he watched?
“It’s settled then,” 5R sounded pleased, “9S, make the specimen hard, please.”
“Hard?” He sputtered out of his train of thought. “With what? I don’t want to touch it!”
“With its circuitry, please.” 5R sounded annoyed.
9S sighed and started looking through the mess of strings he’d untangled and trying to make sense of them. Machine and android cores were built in imitation of human brains, so he knew roughly what strings to pull to get what reaction. But this wasn’t like that. Sure, he could guess generally that things like melatonin production would produce roughly the desired result, but everything else was going to be guesswork. So he started pulling. He found something that looked enough like testosterone and flipped the valve open.
The beast lunged at both of them so suddenly and so violently that it could have killed them before they had the chance to flinch back. Only as it did were they made aware of the semi-tangible restraints holding it in place, which arced with an electricity that was clearly painful, making the beast yelp and its foggy eyes water. 9S slammed the hormone gate shut again and found something as close to the opposite as he could and flipped that instead. It took a second to kick in, but when it did, the beast flopped backward so suddenly that 2B jumped a little and had to check that it was still alive.
“Nice one,” 5R sighed over the comms.
“I’m not a biologist!” 9S protested, “I know the basics of hormones, I don’t know what makes a wolf horny!”
“Have you tried making it think about female wolves?” 2B responded flatly.
“Female wolves? Why didn’t I think of that?” 9S slapped his forehead, “Just tell me what hormone makes a wolf think about female wolves and I’ll get right on that!”
“Hold on,” He heard 5R searching something in her log, “Try to find the closest equivalent you can to Vasopressin and activate that. Then just start pumping dopamine and oxytocin. I’ll send you diagrams if you need them.”
“I know what dopamine and oxytocin look like,” 9S flipped those channels open, a second later the wolf started to lazily wag its tail. “This… looks like Vasopressin?”
At the same time he was opening that channel, 2B had stepped between the beast’s legs and was rummaging through the thick dark fur of his crotch. She found what it was she was looking for around the same time that the hormones started flowing, a red tip was starting to emerge from his sheath as she pushed the fur surrounding it out of her way. As she continued to expose his growing co*ck, the wolf’s giant fuzzy balls clenched up toward his body.
“Good, now we’re getting somewhere,” 5R sounded almost breathless behind her keyboard.
More and more kept coming from the sheath, to an extent that seemed like it shouldn’t have been possible. He was already waist-high laying on his back compared to them, but red flesh kept rising from his furry sheath until it was about neck-high. Pointed at the tip and with a knot at the bottom, brilliant blue veins straining constantly at the skin like bolts of lightning. 9S gulped. 2B looked like she was at least reconsidering her enthusiasm.
“Approximate size,” 2B audibly gulped. “Twelve and a half inches from base to tip. Average girth of eight and a third inches around, knot width of eighteen inches at widest.”
“I’m starting to question the… possibility of getting a sem*n sample,” 9S muttered.
“It will be possible,” 2B reached down to expose her crotch, then thought better of it, “Though it may be… difficult.”
“Well, guess you better hurry up and get started then,” 9S feigned cracking his knuckles. “For the glory of mankind, right?”
“You know, 9S,” 5R drawled into her microphone, dragging out the words gleefully, “Since the bunker bodies you two are using right now are both breeding compatible. We could always have you do the collecting.”
“Me? Absolutely not!” 9S snapped, “I’m not the one who said I wanted to learn about its capabilities.”
“But if it’s for the glory of mankind-” 5R started teasingly.
“Mankind is going to need somebody else to bring it glory then! I’m not putting either hole anywhere close to that thing, thank you.”
“Either hole,” 5R snorted. “Every android with a co*ck between his legs thinks that he should only ever be on sem*n delivery instead of collection for the rest of his lifespan. It’s not even your cum in those balls of yours-”
“Please, stop arguing,” 2B spoke softly. “I’m going to begin collection now, and I need both of you to be paying attention if something should go wrong.”
9S watched her step between the beast’s legs and position herself where she could reach his co*ck. She reached out a seemingly still hesitant hand and leaned it toward her. It only served to drive home the disparity in size. The tip of it reached up between her breasts, the knot resting around the bottom of her stomach. Her hands couldn’t close fully around it, even up near the top where it became thinner.
“Are you sure-” 9S started.
2B waved at him in annoyance before lowering her mouth down to the tip and parting her lips. She got an inch or two in before her lips were forced about as wide as they could go, she tried to push herself and sink further down, but she only got another inch in at most. Even if the bunker bodies were designed to collect samples, the designers had never accounted for something of this size. She reached out and tried to stroke with her hands, even grinding her whole body against the beast’s rod, but she was clearly in over her head.
“Yeah, I could have guessed your mouth wouldn’t be able to accommodate that,” 5R sounded disappointed. “Even if we removed a lot of your jaw and throat infrastructure, we’d still run into ergonomic problems. Basically all of our workarounds and improvements allow for greater length, but girth is going to keep being the problem.”
“Isn’t my… puss*,” 2B said the word gingerly, “Capable of greater stretching?”
“Yes, though I doubt you would be able to take the knot.” 5R mused.
“If it would provide more stimulation to the specimen, that wouldn’t matter.” 2B took a step back, once again looking on with intimidation.
“That’s true,” 5R cleared her throat, “9S, what kind of pleasure response was the specimen giving during that extraction attempt?”
“I mean it wasn’t exactly lighting up,” 9S looked at 2B in horror, “You can’t seriously be thinking about trying to take that thing inside of you.”
“It seems like the most realistic approach at this point,” 2B seemed like she was looking to be talked out of it.
“We can send for somebody else with collection equipment,” 9S gestured toward where he thought 5R was sitting.
“I doubt we have collection equipment of the right size,” 2B countered.
“She’s right, nothing we have really stretches that much more than a synthetic vagin* or anus is going to.” 5R sounded apologetic. “She can take most of it safely.”
“Is her body going to still work afterwards?” 9S protested.
“If it fails in doing this, it didn’t work to begin with.” 2B stuck her chin out indignantly.
“He meant if people like him are still going to be able to use it,” 5R spat with sudden and shocking venom.
“That’s not helpful,” 9S gasped, “Maybe a science unit wouldn’t understand, but losing a body isn’t exactly fun for us.”
“I’m unlikely to suffer damage from this so long as the specimen remains restrained,” 2B said flatly. “I will be ready to disengage from collection as soon as I feel like my systems are being taxed.”
2B clumsily climbed up onto the beast, which wasn’t moving much but was still slowly breathing and fidgeting. More inconveniently, its co*ck had started to twitch and jerk, fully hard and veins pressed tight against the skin. 9S sheepishly cut off the flow of hormones, wondering if he hadn’t overdone it somewhat by waiting this long. As 2B straddled it and tried to line her puss* up with it, it flexed away from her and out of her grasp.
“9S, could you… hold the specimen’s member in place for me?” 2B asked, face turning red.
“What?” 9S yelped.
“It keeps… jumping.” 2B sounded downright pathetic, “Please?”
For as much as 9S really didn’t want to, he also wasn’t going to stamp his feet and cross his arms and hold everything up. He took a couple of tentative steps forward until he was close enough, then reached out his hands and squeamishly gripped at the base of the knot where the beast’s co*ck was thin. It tried to jerk again in his hands, but it didn’t wind up moving nearly as much. His reward was watching 2B lower herself onto the tip until the lips of her puss* spread out around it. He felt a tinge of something like jealousy, seeing her puss* for the first time now in the context of it being speared by something so big that he couldn’t imagine it not being painful.
If it was, that wasn’t how 2B reacted. As she continued sliding down onto it, puss* spreading so wide that stretch marks appeared on the synthetic skin around it, her lips parted in a silent exclamation. The beast gave a snuffle and a twitch, its co*ck jerking harshly enough that it slipped for a moment out of 9S’s hands. 2B’s legs had been shaking and looked unsteady already, but it yanked her off balance and she dropped even deeper onto it. He could see the outline of the tip bulging against her stomach as she got her knees underneath her.
“Are you alright?” 9S hissed apologetically.
“I’m fine,” She responded in a weirdly fluctuating voice, “The sensation is more intense than I thought it would be.”
The beast’s co*ck gave another twitch that literally took her with it, twitching her up toward his chest and then back down. 2B’s muted vocalizations became an undignified yelp.
“Please go back to holding it,” She squeaked.
9S grabbed it more firmly this time, somewhat embarrassed for her. Though perhaps he shouldn’t have bothered. A second later, 2B started to rock her hips up and down on the massive rod and began making unusual, surprisingly weak noises as she did. 9S saw the beast’s brain starting to light up, even in a drugged state, but he didn’t pull his attention away from 2B.
“Are you alright?” He craned his neck to try to see her face.
“It feels… it feels…” 2B sounded badly out of breath, “Why does it feel so much better than I expected?”
“Oh, I should have mentioned that,” 5R suddenly sounded incredibly enthusiastic. “There have been some updates to the bunker bodies recently. With some populations in decline, they’ve decided to modify pleasure reception and simulation to encourage productivity. Based on our study of human media, we’ve done our best to simulate what we believe human sexual satisfaction was like instead of our standard levels. You’ll also receive substantial bonus pleasure at the point where your collection womb has been completely filled, and then greatly diminished pleasure until you’ve dropped it off and replaced it.”
“Yeah, you really should have mentioned that,” 9S scowled.
“2B doesn’t seem to be too upset about it.” 5R’s enthusiasm had turned back to lechery.
She wasn’t wrong, 2B’s face was twisted in a warping, unprofessional display of pleasure that was unlike anything 9S had seen before. Not just from her, but from any other android. Her mouth hung open and she had started to moan and gasp loudly and lewdly. She had uncovered her chest to let her breasts bounce rhythmically as she tried continually faster and faster paces. She was spreading her puss* wide with each downward motion on a co*ck now slick with lubricants that were leaking from her c*nt in a steady stream downward. 9S drew his hand back tentatively and she didn’t even notice. Whatever ‘human media’ they’d studied to come to their conclusions had probably been animated.
“It seems… extreme?” He wiped his hand on his leg. Her juices had gotten into his glove, but more of what he was trying to get rid of was the feeling of the beast’s co*ck thudding powerfully and red-hot against his palm.
“Jealous?” 5R sounded a little out of breath, 9S’s scowl deepened at the thought that she was probably performing her scientific duties one-handed. “Of course, our baselines for pleasure were based out of android-on-android coupling, so things which deviate this extremely will produce their own tacked-on effects. The extremeness of the stretch is probably causing a multiplicative effect of some kind to the standard pleasure, then the reward motivator is being added on top.”
“F-f*ck!” 2B yelped, throwing her hips down harsh onto the animal’s co*ck, slapping her waist against the knot.
“Did YoRHa ever stop to think that androids might not want to do anything other than collect samples when they implemented these changes?” 9S tried to smile sarcastically, but he mostly just looked pained.
“They’d probably see it as a win-win,” 5R’s breath was getting faster, “We always need more collectors, plus they could probably start treating collection as rest and relaxation.”
“Ah!” 2B yelped, throwing her hips down a couple of times in quick succession before suddenly jerking them back up and nearly off of the monster’s co*ck, a spray of lubricant coming rushing out from between her legs as her knees wobbled and her back arched. The creature reached out a lazy hand to try to get her to start up again, but before it had gotten halfway, she was back to it. Now even louder and moving faster with the help of the wetness she had left all over the beast's co*ck.
It was too sick to be a joke, too funny to be anything else. 2B had stripped to the point of being fully exposed in front of him for the first time, but he might as well not even have been in the room. Instead she was bouncing up and down, seemingly getting more pleasure from giving pleasure to an animal than she was ever going to get from him. The first time the mask slipped, the first time he got a look at a part of her he’d been trying to angle his way toward, and it was while he was being made obsolete in real time. Somewhere in the animal brain, pleasure receptors were flashing and connecting like the lights of anglerfish in the deep sea. At least somebody was having fun.
He started to pull on the strings, timidly at first but when he realized how little shame it made him feel he got more aggressive. He tried shutting off the arousal systems, but the body was working mostly on autopilot from the brain there. Even things like making the beast tired, thirsty, need to go to the bathroom, all of those got ignored. Finally, realizing the risk he was taking, he started playing with the hormones again.
When he opened the arousal and male hormone channels to max, not even a full second passed before the beast suddenly snapped alert and awake in a way he hadn’t been since they’d subdued him. The lazy attempt to reach out to 2B before became a sharp, purposeful movement. One she could have dodged or countered in any other situation but which she didn’t even see coming this time. But instead of an attack, he simply grabbed her around the waist with one of his oversized, clawed hands. She yelped as he started to pump her up and down on his member for a second before lurching forward, pinning her first against the wall and then down onto the ground where he started to thrust down into her.
“sh*t! Sedate, sedate!” 9S feigned panic.
“I am sedating! Get his systems under control before he breaks her collection womb!” 5R shouted back.
“D-don’t!” 2B yelped, “Don’t stop him, I can take him!”
“Are you kidding me?” 9S barked.
“Hold on!” 5R typed furiously for a moment, “Her body is holding up, the new wombs seem to be working fine. If she says she can take it-”
“She doesn’t know what she can take, the new programming is doing the talking for her!” 9S snapped.
“It’s not your call to make!” 5R squawked, her voice calming down though she was still audibly on edge. “Do whatever it takes in that thing’s brain to get it off of her the second she says to or can’t take it any more, not a second before.”
9S clenched his fists impotently, 2B had shuddered and sprayed again, but the monster kept f*cking her throughout instead of letting her take her time to ride her peak. Her hands grabbed at her surroundings, her body, and the creature’s fur intermittently, eyes rolled back and teeth clenched harshly together as the monster just kept pounding and pounding.
“I guess battle units really are sturdy,” 5R sounded calmer than before. Like the longer this went on without something loudly snapping the more safe she felt in letting it continue. “But I would have thought she hated surrendering so much that she would only accept being on top.”
“It’s the programming,” 9S insisted, “I’m telling you, it’s going to come back to bite us.”
“Maybe.” 5R sounded disinterested in what he had to suggest, “Or maybe she doesn’t see it as surrendering when her partner can actually earn it.”
The way she was talking at this point made it sound like every single thing 5R said was meant as a dig towards him, subtle or not. 9S didn’t especially care. He was too busy watching the wolf have its way with 2B, and that burned him under the collar more than anything 5R was saying.
It howled suddenly, giving a great powerful thrust of its hips that 9S was certain would be the point where things went bad. 2B squealed and kicked her legs impotently as the massive, angry red knot pressed harder and harder against her, seemingly impossible to fit. At least until it simply wasn’t any more. With a loud, creaking and scraping pop like the creature was literally moving parts of her aside to make room for itself, it slid in. 2B made a noise like she was choking.
“Redlining… redlining…” 5R sounded like she was on the edge of her seat, then sighed, “Stabilized.”
2B shuddered and buried her face in her hands as the wolf’s giant furry balls started to pump, their liquid load sloshing into her audibly in giant splashes. As it kept going and the wolf’s howl turned into a whimpering, huffing bark he leaned forward and sniffed at the back of her head almost protectively. Her stomach slowly swelling as the collection womb filled, immobilized on his co*ck, 2B was wrapped in a furry, muscular cocoon that puffed and panted and licked her ears and face almost warmly. She kept twitching and letting out whimpers to match his, face drawn up in a mask of ecstasy that seemed to have blown out everything else from her mind.
“And… and…” 5R’s voice started to sound almost smug. “And that’s a hold! I told them that the nanite weave would work!”
As she started bragging, the monster removed his knot from 2B with a noisy pop. He bent down and sniffed at her again as she whimpered and wiggled her hips. When he was fully out of her, he scratched absentmindedly at his crotch. He was still hard, somehow.
“Ah, sh*t,” 5R muttered. 9S could see a small amount of the beast’s cum starting to leak out of 2B. “He must have damaged the sealing musculature. 9S, could you… hold her closed for a moment?”
“Could I what?” 9S yelped.
“I can trigger a remote womb disconnect and seal it on my end, but it’s going to take a second to get clearance, and I don’t want to waste any of the sample.” 5R was already typing. “Just like… squeeze her puss* shut with your hands?”
9S looked up to where the observation room was incredulously for a moment before 2B made a gasping sort of sound and he stepped over to her. Her puss* was gaping slightly open, a pair of fleshy walls moving inside of her trying to close up, a little cum leaking forth but what looked like an ocean more sitting inside. He reached out a disgusted hand and pinched either side of the hole together.
“That’ll do, give me another minute here,” 5R kept typing before eventually clearing her throat, “Okay, womb detached and sealed. That’s like 95% of the sample, but with as big of a sample as it is, I’m not going to cry about it.”
2B didn’t pop straight up, but a change came over her face near-instantly. No longer awash in pleasure, but not suddenly flooded with shame either. An almost clinical disinterest. Her face looked almost sour when it turned to 9S, who drew his hand back defensively. She looked almost confused. Like she wasn’t sure where she was and was less than pleased about her current circ*mstances.
“9S, could you please interface with me and help me leave?” She said calmly, “My legs are… misbehaving.”
“Do you want me to get a medical unit?” 5R’s pride vanished immediately.
“That shouldn’t be necessary. They work well enough that I should be able to make my way there on my own when I’ve deposited the sample, but I don’t trust them enough to get me to sample drop off without risking harm to it.”
9S stepped back with a sigh, shifting his mind from the animal to 2B. She let him in and he got a feel for the damage that had been done. There was a residual warmth between her legs and in her gut that made him grit his teeth, but her legs were indeed a little wonky. Some wires crossed, some framework bent out of shape. Not the kind of thing that would take more than a little adjusting, but she wasn’t as used to fixing these things and working around them as he was. He helped her stand up and then walk almost marionette-like to the airlock. When she was through on the other side and had dropped the womb off for collection, he slid back out. He could hear her thunking her way clumsily up the stairs through 5R’s feed.
A hot, wet breath blew against the back of his neck. He thought for a second it was a residual sensation from 2B, but when a second one slapped into him he nearly jumped. The monster was standing close to him, bent down to investigate him now that he was the only thing in the room with it. When 9S turned it gave his face a sloppy lick, but more upsettingly, the hard thing between its legs bobbed.
“Uh…” 9S quickly tried to shift back into its mind, but the wires had all wound back up with each other, “sh*t.”
“Oh wow,” 5R sounded gleeful, “We basically never get specimens that can give more than one sample.”
“You want to try telling it that I’m not interested in collecting a sample?” 9S was trying to untie the wires as quickly as he could, meanwhile the creature had started to poke and prod at his clothes with its claws. The thing between its legs bobbed again, roughly at face height. “Maybe doubling up on that sedative?”
“Relax, you’re just as designed for collection as 2B is,” 5R was starting to sound smug again. “Besides, for the glory of mankind, right?”
“In this situation, I don’t really give a sh*t about mankind!” 9S had been trying to back away from the creature but it had successfully backed him into a corner. It had also figured out that it would be easier to simply rip open his shirt than to try to pull it off, and was probably only a second away from learning the same thing about his pants.
“I’ll strike that from the record for your sake.”
“I’m serious!” 9S yelped as the creature picked him up with seemingly no effort.
Whatever 5R’s response was, he didn’t hear it. The monster had lifted 9S up in order to lick his face at what was a more comfortable eye level for it. Between the panting, wet breaths and the low, bassy rumbles emerging from its throat, 9S’s senses were suddenly dominated by the creature in the cage with him. His clothes destroyed, he could feel it lining up his asshole with its tip as it continued to lick. He wanted to protest, but he also didn’t want to open his mouth. He tried to untie the strings as quickly as possible, yanking carelessly and risking doing damage, but it didn’t matter. Time that had flown before compressed now.
Then it speared him on its tip, and 9S couldn’t keep from crying out, feeling the slobbery kisses start to reach his tongue. The thin, tapered point of it slid in easily, though androids were also designed in such a way that they were easy enough to penetrate even before they began self-lubricating. Like 2B probably had, he marveled at the fact that any part of the thing, even this thinnest point, could fit inside of him. Doubly so because he’d never even had something make an attempt at that hole before. As it eased him down on more and more of itself, he could feel his ass spreading out wider and wider to accommodate, the red hot point snaking up into his stomach. He wasn’t sure how much room there was in his body for it, the space reserved for relief and then the collection womb at the end of it, but it already had more inside of him than he would have thought there was room for.
And of course it felt good, he hadn’t expected it to hurt. He could tangibly feel the moment it prodded and then entered the collection womb as an eye-watering rush of exhilarating pleasure. The programming was even more intense than he would have guessed watching 2B go through the same thing, she’d been controlled given the circ*mstances. As he kept getting more and more stuffed, 9S felt himself cumming, but it was almost secondary, almost drowned out. His balls clenched as his load came dribbling out like his body was making way for collection.
As the wolf started to thrust up into him, 9S could feel the knot slapping forcefully against his ass. He hadn’t expected for it to even reach, but the way the monster was thrusting, it felt like the thing thought it could actually fit inside. Again, his balls pumped and pumped until there was nothing left in them. No seed, either his or anybody else’s, for his body to spew.
Of course, the wolf was strong enough that he didn’t care about how things should have worked. As his panting started to become more strained, he started to push and grind 9S down on the top of the knot with each downward thrust. 9S expected to hear a sudden snapping or grinding like he’d heard with 2B, though more realistically, he expected things to just sort of sloppily go nowhere. But suddenly, with a sharp thrust, something gave painlessly. He felt the pointed tip of the creature’s co*ck jam right up and into the top of the collection womb in his stomach, his ass suddenly stretched so wide that even through the wave of programmed pleasure a sort of stomach-churning pressure washed through him. Like the monster could have taken its hands away from him and kept him suspended there, massive knot pressing into either side of his body and holding him firm. His balls churned and his co*ck twitched, trying to pump something that wasn’t there any more.
Then the first massive twitch rolled up through the co*ck inside of him and a splash of something too hot to seem real hit his stomach. 9S whined openly and clutched at the creature with both hands for purchase, grabbing handfuls of shaggy fur as it panted dumbly and kept licking his face, all while pumping him until his stomach also bulged outward from the size of its load. The feeling of being full, not just of co*ck but now having his collection womb full of cum, was a headrush. He suddenly felt tremendously light, incredibly small. A gratitude toward the monster that bordered on affection making him keep taking the licks and nuzzles instead of pulling away. He had no doubt it was too stupid to understand most anything, that it was just operating on pure animal instinct, but it seemed to be clutching him almost lovingly.
The collection womb filled and then overfilled, the creature’s cum trying to flow out one way or another but finding no room around the knot. Some of it flowed into his now-emptied balls. Replacing the seed that had been there before, overwriting it. But now that the creature had all but stopped moving and the last of its load was trickling out weakly, the pleasure was subsiding. The new cum sitting boiling-hot and uneasy in his sack. Not powerful enough to force its way out, but a constant warm reminder.
He could hear, vaguely, a new round of gas being pumped into the containment cell. He tried to blearily untangle himself from the creature, but as it remained knotted in him, it had settled onto the floor as best it could while still inside, leaving him stuck as it curled up around him, still occasionally reaching out to lick his face.
“Yeah, we’ve got womb detachment.” 5R was talking to somebody else, 9S wasn’t sure he was meant to hear it, “I don’t think he’s going to be able to get out any time soon, so we’re going to wait for the creature to disengage from him before we retrieve.”
“Could you perhaps speed up the… disengagement?” 2B’s voice was a surprise.
“I’m already hitting it with as much soothing agent as I feel comfortable doing, things just take time.” 5R sounded apathetic.
It was working, certainly. As the monster continued to curl up, its breathing slowed down more and more. It was falling asleep faster than its knot was deflating. By the time the knot disengaged with a loud pop, it was dozing peacefully, curled around 9S like a favorite toy.
The door opened quietly and 2B came in, looking fresh enough and no worse for wear. 9S realized that his collection had probably taken longer than it felt like. As she eyed him and offered him a cautious hand, 9S tried to rise and found that he didn’t have any trouble with it. At least not from his body. As he did, the creature shifted slightly in its sleep, growled meekly at 2B, and licked 9S wetly one more time across the face before he slid away out of the containment cell.
