Angelic Malfunction (Patreon)

The door to the repair bay was torn open so fast, that some of the delicate equipment shuddered from the gust of wind which entered into the forlorn halls, the burst of light now illuminating the shadowy silhouette of a tall, enigmatic woman, whose desperate attempts at getting into the station were hindered by her gruesome condition.

“D-damn… T-the symptoms are ge-e-e-e- ERROR! ER-R-R-R worse! N-need re-r-r-repairs, and q-q-quick…” Saki gritted her teeth, the robotic Steel Angel now trying to battle her constantly blurring vision as she navigated through the room with surprising deftness. Whatever battle did the android come from must had been rather vicious - her hands needed to latch onto nearby equipment to combat the fact that one of her leg was missing, the constantly twitching appendage now trying in vain to grant her the balance she so desperately needed, the phantom limb still spewing out sparks left and right even after the majority having been severed quite a while ago. Still, bearing this and a myriads of other battle scars on her body, Saki didn’t flinch even for a second – her gaze was focused at the other end of the room, where she’d be able to finally administer some self-repair protocols if she was lucky.

Fate, however, seemingly had some other plans with her.

“WARNING! Unit Saki-i-i-I’s body inte-e-e-g-egr-egrity co-cocompromised! Reque-e-e-ERROR! ERROR!” the Steel Angel blurted out abruptly, needing to come to a halt as the whole world darkened for a brief second, the flickering lights and the constant static noise in her eyes being amplified to such a level, which would have almost managed to short-circuit her entire system, were it not for her final failsafe mechanism saving her from oblivion.

“No! No! P-pp---p-p-p-lease hold on Saki! J-j-just a li-i-i----“

The android, feeling a sudden surge of unbridled power jolt through her body, shuddered, her otherwise enigmatic form now trembling and wavering. Desperately, Saki grabbed the edge of a nearby table, gripping it with such potent, titanic force, that her robotic fingers even managed to bend the steel furniture a little. Shaking violently, the one-legged robot attempted to reign in her constantly beeping error messages by bashing her head with one of her hands, sending a burst of sparks into the air in the process, lessening her dreadful situation, even if briefly.

“T-there you g-g-go girl! I just need to… need t- WARNING! CODE EXCEPTION 452231! Energy reactors malfunctioning! Redirecting excess power to l-l-l-------“

Saki, flinching for a moment, yelped in surprise, as an uncontrollable twitching motion caused her leg to waltz around a little against her wish, causing the already unstable android to fall onto the ground, hitting her rear quite hard in the process.

“N-no! Don’t you do this to… to me, Saki! I… I…”

“ERROR! Excess energy overflow in Saki_Bot_Right_Arm! Attempting to redire- ERROR! ERROR! Excess energy overflow in Saki_Bot_Right_Arm! Attempting to re-re-re-reeeee----- Redirecting power to Saki_Bot_Right_Arm and Saki_Bot_Left_Arm!”

“No! NO! STOP!” Saki exclaimed in panic, her flickering eyes now quickly dashing to her twitching and trembling right arm, the android already starting to feel a gargantuan amount of power and electricity surging through her body which she had no possible chance of controlling. Trying to seize the momentum and avert disaster, she tried to reach out with her other arm to prevent the other from flailing around… but just as she did so, she felt her appendage disobeying her every wish, lifting itself into the air in order to rapidly move her fingers up and down, her mechanical joints screeching from the intense speed she was forced to do so.

“N-no! Not like… not like thi-“

“ERROR! ERROR! Power overflow in Saki_Bot_Right_Arm! Electric conflux detected! Saki bot’s central computer temperature reaching critical levels! Forced laceration protocol engaged!”

Before she even had the time to react to this automatic command, Saki heard a loud snapping noise coming from her right, her darkening vision being still apt enough for her to see the horrific outcome of the malfunction-ridden override in her system. Acting in self-defense to prohibit a potential catastrophic failure, her already damaged, wiggling arm was forcibly severed from her body, the still-twitching appendage flailing on the ground as its electric cables breathed their last, ending its struggle for the time being.

Saki, however, didn’t seem to be so lucky. Without a warning, the android’s eyes finally shut down, blinding the already desperate warrior to the outside world completely. Overwhelmed by a sense of dread, she tried to reach left and right with her arm, in hopes of actually being still able to fix this mess, caring little about the cost it would have entailed.

“Warning! CODE EXCEPTION 425592! Vision nodes disabled! Saki_Bot_Head irresponsive! Recalibrating… recali-i-iiiiiiiiiiii- WARNING! WARNING! Central computer temperature reaching critical levels! Emergency cooling protocol activated! Redirecting power from motoric functions!”

And just like that, Saki’s remaining arm has fallen onto the floor, limp and powerless, followed soon by her head, which now stared into nothingness with vacant eyes, the last spark of ‘life’ having burnt out in them after the deafening internal sirens finally exerted enough dominance over her bodily functions to deprive her of any chance of salvaging or changing her fate.

WARNING! WARNING! Catastrophic system failure! De-e-fefefefe----ense protocols breached! Sa-a-a-aki_Bo—o----- ERROR! ERROR! Central computer damage! Fatal ex-e-e-xx-x-xception 244243! Sa-a-aki_Bo-ot- ERROR! ERROR! ERROR! ERROR! Emergency-y-y-y-y functions e-e-e-e---- Total Systemic Corruption! Sel-f-f-f-f repair i-i-imposs-s-s--------“

Slowly and steadily, the twitching of her body, the shuddering, the flight of sparks from her scars abated, total darkness seeping into the still functioning parts of the robot maid, turning the previously lively frame into nothing but a silent husk. The serenade of beeping and roaring sounds of errors and malfunctions finally came to an end, their relentless onslaught finally leaving the helpless Steel Angel alone…

Saki finally succumbed to her fate, leaving her perhaps in the most undignified state imaginable… at least for a little while.

“Welp, that happened…” a faint voice came from the hollow husk of the robot, alongside with some rustling sound from the inside “I guess taking on all those battle robots alone was a folly after all…”

Grumbling and cursing to herself, the gentle feminine voice now tapped on the chest of the robot, as if she was searching for something.

“At least she still has an emergency ejecting hatch for times like this. If only I could find… Ah, there we go!”

With an audible beeping sound, Saki’s tummy and breasts began to tremble, popping open soon after as a dual-winged hatch, releasing a small burst of steam from the inside as a small, coughing girl climbed out of her metallic husk.

“Sorry that I damaged you this much, Saki. You truly deserve better…” Gabriel sighed, falling onto the ground as she inspected her suit with disdain.

“Well, I’ll get beheaded for this, that’s for sure…” she snorted “I guess I better get back to fixing you before the boss finds out about all this, huh?”

Smiling, she patted the shut-down husk on its shoulders, giggling to herself.

“You’ll be better than new after I patch you up, I promise! Then… we can do it all over again, okay?”

Glancing at the empty eyes of her robotic companion, Gabriel simply winked in joy, trotting skipping and jumping to the far end of the bay, grabbing a box of tools in order to try and rectify her happy hubris… already dreaming of the mischief she’d do once she got Saki back on her feet again.

Written by Nerx