"Tell me, calibrator, do you recall the last three hundred and thirty six hours?"

"Y-yes... I... I remember some of it. It's a blur. I can see it when I'm in my cell. In the corner. Laying there."

"In your cell?"

"Af-firmative, adjucator."

"Excellent. Then let us proceed. Tell me of the first thing you remember."

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A knock upon the reinforced bulkhead stirred the girl from her daydream. Minoora yawned, splaying her arms in either direction as a second round of incessant strikes urged her to to answer whomever awaited her arrival. She looked to that which had received so much neglect under her care: a partially disassembled golem. It had been left in a state of decay, though the security team that brought it here clearly didn't do it any favors.

"I'm coming, I'm coming!" she barked across the small, poorly lit workshop. "I swear if those macho earlets bring me another workload, I'll be the first genius to perish from a conniption." Her muttering followed her directly to the anchored doorway, ultimately silencing her complaints as she flashed the identification card hanging from her coat. The bulkhead hissed as sealing mechanisms began to unlatch, gradually peeling itself apart to grant entry for her surprise visitors.

She stepped aside, hands clawing for a decent hold on the sides of her hips as light spilled in from the foyer beyond. She winced, yet as her vision began to adjust she realized that the room was empty. With a sigh that matched the slide of screeching metal behind her, Minoora stepped out, peering past the left bend in the hallway. "Hello?" she called out, shaking her head when there was no response.

As the woman turned away, a great force wrapped itself around her from behind, hoisting her in the air and carrying her rapidly inside the hole she called her own. Minoora cried out, taken entirely by surprise, and flapped her limbs until she came tumbling down to the floor with something heavy atop her. Instinct drove her to keep low, covering the back of her skull with her arms. She would have remained that way too if not for the bellowing laughter that began to fill the room.

She peeked upward, blinking ever so slowly as a realization began to dawn in her mind. With a growl she rolled over, slipping one of many tools strapped to her belt and jabbed it toward her aspiring aggressor. Blapp tossed his mitts to the sky, mocking her with a flash of his pearly whites and unending tittering. "You should have seen the look on your face!"

"That wasn't funny," Minoora spat, but even she couldn't hold the facade for long. Eventually even her own horrified scowl lightened, disappearing outright in place of a charming, warmed smile and snickers of her own design. "I could have cut you, Blapp."

The sentry only smiled at her, knowing well enough that she'd never follow through with such a grievous claim. "If I were made out of metal, maybe. Oh come on, don't give me that look. Can't a stupid meat-for-brains such as myself come by and marvel at the thing that haunts his dreams?"

"Ugh, you're going to make me lose my lunch."

"Hey! I practiced that one for at least a few minutes before knocking on your door." He beamed, and for a moment even Minoora had trouble discerning whether or not he was telling the truth. "Here, let me help you up." Blapp climbed to his feet, adjusting the way his sloped helmet sat on his skull before reaching out a hand to collect her own.

She hesitated, grabbing it with a bit of reluctant expectation. She knew him better than he thought she did, and that was why she readily pressed her body against his own as he hoisted her to his feet. Blapp may have been surprised, and perhaps he was - for a split, insignificatn second, while he wrapped his limbs around his quarry. But now that they stood there, held firm in eachother's embrace, they could only stare with their minds unable to decipher what to do next.

It was Minoora who withdrew first, letting her hand slide down his forearm, tracing pale fingers along his own as she stepped back. They watched one another for a time, uncertain of what to say in their collective soup of anxiety. Then they both spoke, each uttering a jumbled cacophony and mass of words in tandem that neither understood. They laughed together, Minoora scratching at her neck whilst Blapp shuffled in place.

He spoke then, outstretching a gangly limb toward the golem that had been left perched atop the table behind her. "Is that the last guy who tried to tackle you?" The man smirked, pacing around his friend to get a better look at the automaton. With a whistle he leaned back, admiring it in his own, simple way. "That's an older model. Haven't seen one of these in years. What happened?"

Minoora had followed him to the table, shrugging as nonchalantly as she could. "You tell me; you're in charge of all of the dockets." Her thumb rubbed at her jaw as she leaned in close - that same finger then loosely tracing along the jagged tears in its metal chassis. "Must have been some sort of industrial accident in the lower levels. Who knows these days. It was coated in some sort of substance when it arrived. I asked if I could run an analysis on it, but my request was swiftly denied. As usual."

"That reminds me: why did they transfer you to robotics anyhow?"

"Don't know, don't care. I was told we've had some staff shortages. Beats me, but I'm happy up here. I've got a lab all to myself and no annoying superiors to boss me around. Eh, usually." She smirked as she finished, reaching back to lean against the table. "You should get a post like this. It's--"

Just as she began to speak, the lights above flickered, only to be snuffed out of existence. The two were drenched in a veil of impenetrable ink, saved only when the emergency lighting kicked back in. Klaxons in the outter halls began to wail below a booming voice that addressed the outpost in its entirety.

"BREACH DETECTED IN REACTOR SEVEN--BREACH DETECTED IN REACTOR SEVEN--ALL PERSONNEL REMAIN CALM--ALL PERSONNEL REMAIN CALM--ALL PERSONNEL REMAIN CALM--ALL PERSONNEL REMAIN CALM--BREACH DETECTED IN REACTOR SIX--BREACH DETECTED IN REACTOR S--"

A screech hushed the whooping alarm, but the silence that prevailed was an eerie one. Both Asura stood there, confounded and in shock. Slowly they peered at one another, then out to the hall as an armed squad of crimson-clad troopers surged past. Their hurried flight was information enough that something had gone horribly awry.

"Blapp we--"

"No, stay here."

"What? I know that. We need to stay where we are."

"No, you need to stay where you are. I've got to get to my post. I... This isn't the time for semantics! I'll be back, okay? A golem probably...I don't know, tripped over and busted a cooling rod or something. They'll need me down below."

Minoora frowned with every intention of shaking her head, but could not. "I know," the girl relented with an exhale. "I know. I've just... I've never seen this before. It's probably some dumb drill, huh?"

"Hah, probably. Hey, I'll be back quick as can be, alright? Try not to fall asleep again, eh? You snore."

Her mouth opened to complain, but her companion had already darted out the door. She moved after him, slowing to a crawl by the bulkhead, watching as he rounded the bend in the hall and vanished from sight. "Ass."

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"Is that the last time you saw Sentry Blapp?"

"...No."

"Do you see him now?"

"No."

"What about in your cell?"