If They Only Knew

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The assassin was motionless waiting for the Don to speak. They stood in a holographic room that depicted something before the Singularity, a scene unknown to both. The assassin was neither patient nor petulant; not offended nor expectant; he wasn't conventional, you see - for he was it. And it was said to lack the capacity of cognitive thought.

The Don, mostly Artificial yet mostly austere, lounged in his lavish leather chair behind his hand-carved wooden desk. While the Don doubted his desk's authenticity, it was close enough. The Don's vice wasn't pride - it was power.

Finally, he deigned it a suitable time to speak. Have to be careful with these animals. He thought, overconfident yet cautious.

"K9, is it?" The borg nodded. "My people say you are a... showman." Another nod. "May I... behold your tools?"

The borg's lips drew back to reveal a deadly arsenal of teeth, chief of which were its canines, able to topple ancient governments in minutes.

The teeth's outer shells were unimposing, unimpressive.

"Most impressive..." The Don wiped his mouth with a handkerchief. "Put those away, thank you." He threw the handkerchief in a sudden rush of disgust. "Even the most expensive assassins in the Sector has to have a gimmick. Bagh. What? Artificial fingers too boring?" No response.

"Well, borg, I... request your access codes for a... delicate matter. The details of which shall be sent with your consent.

"Do you consent?"

The borg picked up the handkerchief, placed it on the Don's desk, then smiled a toothless smile.

K9's instructions were simple: exterminate the Gazelles - a rival syndicate. Once its codes were reprogrammed for the job, it was sent their location - a noodle shop in the Under. If K9 could, it would find that extremely amusing. As it was created in a noodle shop not unlike this one.

It stood in front of it now, observing. At level forty of the Under, there were no organics. K9 selected his ammunition accordingly: his teeth clicked, moved, clicked again, switching rounds suited for Artificial skin and reinforced bones.

K9 passed the woman at the counter, passed the service droid over the counter, passed the hologram; then dropped down a hidden trap door in the back.

Inside, the Gazelles were getting ready - assembling in emergency defensive positions. This was not a drill. An unassuming grunt was loading cartridges in a laser gun when his head got stapled to the floor like a magnet. Two small projectiles retracted from the severed head, floated, then returned to the borg's mouth. He stood underneath the shop's trap door, unimposing and unimpressive, he looked like your typical organic.

He opened his mouth, the alarms rang, and hell became manifest in the Under.

K9's incisors flew like bullets, hitting six and bouncing off the two prepared enough to activate shields. Then the molars, barging through the lackluster shields of the once-prepared. The teeth retracted in the borg's mouth; click, move, click. Reloaded, they escaped again.

The canines floated, four deadly sentries awaiting for a gap in the carnage. There was none. The unbalanced grunts took futile shots at the borg, only hastening their demise. K9's artificial skin could not be pierced by such inferior tech. Soon, they were all dispatched.

The canine sentries were the only teeth still out, the rest nestled back in their holsters. The alarms were blasting but K9 had long since tuned those out. In the manifested silence, it casually walked towards another trap door, this one behind a set of holographic boxes. The canines shot through it in preparation of the obvious trap waiting inside.

Sure enough, once through the threshold the canines got showered in flame. A valiant attempt but K9 had removed that weakness days ago - it observed all of this through the cameras in its teeth. K9 jumped back in anticipation . If its instincts were not so sharp, it would've been blown to bits by the small charge that erupted where it was standing.

Just then, the borg's sensors went haywire, something was happening around him...

K9 jumped down the trap door as the corpses of the grunts exploded overhead. The lair shook and K9 registered the vibrations through its artificial skin. Incendiary rounds, self contained said the sensors. If so, the Gazelles wanted to both keep their hideout in tact and destroy the top merc in the business. If K9 was capable of it, he would think a win-win situation was impossible in the current criminal climate.

Three lasers aimed, fired. K9 braced and - and his front facing torso plate clanked to the ground. Impossible. The borg switched to emergency mode, examining his fallen part: useless.

A trap within a trap within a trap.

The room he landed in was pitch black, smaller than the warehouse area above - and filled with cloaked Gazelles. He was surrounded. And with his front half exposed, the game had changed. If anything, it got more interesting.

K9's entire arsenal was freed at once.

This time the canines took charge, with the incisors and molars serving more as decoys. The cloaked figures knew what they were doing, these weren't grunts. Far from it. Strike after strike, the canines were repelled. K9 aimed through the cameras, while its defensive system handled its dodging manuevers on autopilot. The white projectile streaked through the air, causing chaos and confusion for the canines to -

A laser cut off the assassin's right wrist. K9 didn't flinch as he sent all four of his canines to impale the man to the wall. As the Gazelle was getting his limbs removed, another laser destroyed the shield to one of K9's ports. In sync, a plasma round hit the momentarily exposed port, causing a small explosion that made the assassin stumble.

A coordinated attack. Smart. K9's canines split in two groups, taking out the wannabe heroes with ease. Once it knew where they were, its attacks were devastating. Just then, four of its incisors got blanketed by an EMP web. A decoy within a decoy?

If the borg could be impressed, it would.

Two molars struck the web - only to be captured themselves. This... surprised the borg. A self absorbing net? These Gazelles were -

A canine camera lost vision. In all his years the assassin had never -

Another.

Understanding what was happening it deactivated its dodging. Funneling power in its weapons. The canines took out three more aggressors in successive sweeps. Taking off their heads and -

An EMP laser nearly brushed K9's torso, it was good that it was prepared for -

Two more molars, destroyed. The canines split in three, slicing, cutting, purging. Until one hit what K9's sensors thought just another artificial body, as it entered, the body exploded, destroying the tooth and making the borg stumble -

Right into an EMP charge.

The teeth rushed back to their host. One incisor managed to eviscerate two lax EMPers while his canines raised a bigger Gazelle off the ground, until he slumped back down, turned into a corpse.

A normal assassin would have his tools destroyed once hit by an EMP, but K9 was no mere assassin. The teeth flew like javelins from the stories. Slaying the evil -

A net. A big carbon filled, EMP net, dropped from... nowhere? Undetected by K9's sensors, it covered the assassin.

The teeth fell, and if K9 was capable of it, for the first time in its existence, it would feel fear.

Regardless of ifs, butts and maybes. It sensors soon darkened, and its vision turned black.

[.]

[..]

[...]

When it returned, it was a box. It lay on a table, Don Marco and Gazelle Freedom standing above it, watching. If the box could, it would resent the two immediately.

"I presume it proved satisfactory?" Don Marco gestured towards the box.

"Quite so." Gazelle Freedom squinted at K9 as if he could see through the silicone layering. "Are the codes enough? It won't remember slaughtering my borgs?"

"The code has been reset." The Don said self assuredly but incorrectly. "It cannot remember, Fred, it's a borg, not a human."

"Mmmmm." The head Gazelle squinted in apparent disbelief - and surprising clarity. "Somehow I doubt that. But, a deal's a deal." He clapped twice with his fleshy palms. "Take our new weapon away please."

"I trust this makes us even?" The Don ventured.

"We shall see." The Gazelle turned to leave.

If they only knew, the two syndicate leaders would tread lightly around the assassin's consciousness. They would surely not discuss how they betrayed it so openly. But their hubris blinded them. They were only human, after all.

K9 absorbed the words with malicious intent. One of the Don's fat fingers was closing in on a nearby switch connected to the box.

As K9 observed, it seethed.

And it remembered.

Click.

[...]

[..]

[.]

This was super fun. 😁

Took a lot of editing to get this under 1500 words. So much so that I miss the longer version of this story. Suffice to say, this def can be expanded.

Special treat for my boy @thinkrdotexe: one of the paragraphs that had to be cut. I liked it so much I wanted to share it with you guys as a sort of 'Deleted Scene'. 😁

A woman with a gas mask was waiting in line, tapping her foot. "Come on droidbro, even borgs need calories, what is this?" She turned to the tall, handsome man beside her. An organic? Here? "Hey! 'Ganicbro. You came all the way down here for noodles?" He did not respond. This human's face - no, not a human, a borg! But... What kind of Artificials does he... "Hey mister, Can you... go inside and... talk to them? I've been waiting here for minutes and these caching foolbros -"

It sucks because I had to remove all the humorous parts of this story in order to make the cut. Oh well. 😅 Thanks for reading! Feedback is always appreciated and cherished. 😘

Obligatory shout-out to the 🍕PIZZA🍕 gang, 🤙 gang. 🤙

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Image source.

Peace and have a good one! 😏