KOTO - Kinaesthetic cOunter-Terrorism Operative

K.O-T.O.
–
KINAESTHETIC COUNTER-TERRORISM OPERATIVE
Chapter I - Expo
“Ladies and gentlemen of the press, distinguished board members, and anyone else who’s managed to sneak in past our security!”  There was a small ripple of polite laughter before the speaker, Cole Vangelos, continued, “It gives me enormous pleasure, and no small amount of relief, to be able to announce to you all the latest release from Zephyr Industries’ Defence Initiative, the Kinesthetic Counter-Terrorism Operative!” 
Vangelos stood to one side, dramatically sweeping his arm towards the pair of bright purple curtains behind him, which were drawn aside with a flourish.  The flash of LEDs was like a fireworks display as everyone present, journo or otherwise, hurried to get pictures of the figure that stood at the centre of the stage, picked out in shimmering laser light.  At a glance, Zephyr Industries’ newest production looked like someone had made a 3-dimensional jigsaw of a woman out of plastic and steel, and forgotten to paint it.
“Now, as you can see, our engineers and designer have been hard at work to make our ‘K.O.T.O.” unit as human and non-threatening as possible.”  The android took a graceful step forward, pausing as the awed crowd gasped, and then effortlessly walked over to stand beside Vangelos with one hand on its hip.  “Human shape, human size, human posture,” at which point the android gave a friendly wave to the crowd, followed by a ‘thumbs-up’ gesture, “and even human mannerisms!  Where we drew the line, however, is in keeping KOTO’s face as very definitely robotic – our focus groups got creeped out when we tested droids with human faces!”  Vangelos grinned and managed to get a weak laugh from the crowd, while the android outlined its face with it smooth, white hands.  It’s head was much the same shape and size as a human, but was devoid of a mouth, nose, or ears, and in place of eyes it had an inch-thick sensor band that glowed with a soft blue light.  The back of the unit’s head was covered in a series of gentle ridges, which terminated in a cluster of braided fibre-optic strands, coloured with the same light as the eye band.
“Of course, while we don’t want KOTO to scare any citizens, we do want it to make sure the bad guys regret waking up, right?!”  The crowd murmured its assent, and Vangelos nodded emphatically at the response, “Damn right!  KOTO, you ready to show the good people here what you can do?”  The android gave a short, perfunctory nod to Vangelos, who gestured to the Zephyr personnel grouped around the side of the stage.  Somewhat reluctantly, a man kitted out in the distinctive uniform of Zephyr Industries’ security department climbed the short flight of steps to the stage, there to give the crowd a nervous wave. “Ladies and gents, this is Officer Raphael Alegre, of our fine security forces.  Officer Alegre, please draw your stun-baton and prime it.”  Officer Alegre did as he told, but clearly didn’t look to happy about it.  Unlike the crowd before him, he’d already seen videos of the KOTO unit demonstrating its capabilities, and while he’d been assured that its non-lethal takedown would leave him with nothing worse than bruises, he still wasn’t happy about having to face off against a machine designed to stop entire terrorist cells on its own.
There was a soft whum noise as the stun-baton warmed up, and a faint glow surrounded the device’s shaft; KOTO immediately turned to face the unlucky security officer, moving into a relaxed combat stance before he could blink.
“Officer Alegre, please brandish your baton as if you mean to strike KOTO, and try to look like you do mean it.  Pretend she’s a student protestor if that helps!”  Another chuckle from the crowd, and an uneasy grin from the officer as he raised his baton.
“Uh… I’m gonna get you!!”  Yelled Alegre, and took a step forward.  He’d intended to take a second step forward after that, but did not get the chance before the KOTO unit responded.  The android was a blur as it closed the three metre gap between itself and the officer, and before Alegre could even react to what was going on he found himself flat on his face, with his left arm pulled up high behind his back and twisted painfully while the android’s foot was planted firmly against his shoulder.  It was a manoeuvre he knew well, and he knew that at this point even a frail old granny could dislocate his shoulder.  A dazed and mildly terrified “Ow” was all he managed to say.  There was a silence from the crowd, before Vangelos chimed in,
“Ladies and gents, how about that, huh?!”  He grinned like the salesman he was, “Come on, let’s have a big hand for KOTO!”  Applause started in the audience, led by Vangelos, slowly at first but picking up the pace as everyone present managed to process what had just happened.  KOTO itself, meanwhile, switched off Alegre’s stun baton and stepped away from the officer, before reaching down to gently help him to his feet and pass his weapon back to him.  Still somewhat dazed, Officer Alegre managed a short bow to the gathered audience before staggering off of the stage, in search of a drink and somewhere to sit down.
“Of course, not all threats are so easily subdued!”  A ballistics dummy was wheeled onto the stage by a technician, who hurriedly left afterwards.  “KOTO, would you be so good as to let this evil, gun-toting terrorist of a dummy have it, please?”  The android flexed its wrists, causing the casing on both forearms to pop up and a foot-long blade to extend from within, while its first and last fingers folded back to grasp the base of the blade and form a hilt.  The front row of the crowd all tried to take an urgent step back as KOTO leapt into action, beheading the dummy and removing both of its arms in three quick slashes.  The blades slid back into KOTO’s arm and the android kicked the maimed dummy back on its trolley before executing a backwards somersault.  In mid-air, hatches on the unit’s thighs popped open and KOTO took out a pair of squat, bull-pup design sub-machine guns.  As it landed, in a crouch, the android opened fire on the dummy, emptying the clips of both guns in just a couple of seconds.  Silence fell in the auditorium and the crowd, as one, stared at the dummy, which now had several dozen paint splats in the centre of its torso.
“Now, we’ve only given KOTO dummy guns today, because we don’t want anyone getting hit by a ricochet!  But you can rest assured that it’ll be packing live ammo when it goes into service.  We want to destroy threats to our peace, not just redecorate ‘em!”  Guns clicked back into its legs, KOTO turned to face the crowd and bowed quickly, before standing to attention next to Vangelos.  “KOTO can also be equipped with secondary firearms in its back, here,” he patted the android between its shoulder blades, “and also has an entire suite of electronic and digital counter-measures on board, allowing it to tap onto enemy signals or shut them down.  Course, what you’re all wondering now, is how tough is KOTO?  I mean, it doesn’t look too tough, right?”  The android reached up to its back and, with a faint click, withdrew a large calibre pistol, which it promptly handed to Vangelos.  “Now, this puppy is loaded with live ammo, so I’m going to ask you all to take a few steps back, and KOTO’s also going to move further back on the stage.”  With a nod, the android did as instructed, while the audience shuffled back quickly.  “Don’t worry KOTO, you’re insured for this!”  Vangelos chuckled at his own joke, and raised the gun to fire off a single shot.  The echo of the report boomed around the room, and KOTO’s head snapped back a couple of inches from the force of the impact.  The crowd gasped, predictably, and then again as the android straightened up and took a few steps forwards so that everyone – or at least, everyone close enough – could see the damage.  There was a faint smudge across where her eyebrow would have been, had she possessed any, as if someone had dragged a dirty thumb over her forehead.  Besides that, nothing.  Vangelos held up his gun for everyone to see. 
“You’ll notice this is a Hewett & Woldt PDW 7, chambered for ten mill rounds.  Hardly a pop gun.  And yet if you look at KOTO you will see that the round did not penetrate the strengthened alloy casing of its head, nor did it even managed to leave a dent.  That mark, ladies and gents, will polish out without a problem.  To disable a KOTO unit, you’d need something much, much bigger, like an anti-materiel rifle.  Heck, even then you’d have a helluva job hitting the unit, thanks to KOTO’s on-board defence systems, which include EM scramblers, amongst others.  And there’s also this little beauty.  KOTO, show ‘em your colours.”  The robot nodded before activating an internal control.  Suddenly, where before there had been smooth cream and grey alloys, there was now a myriad of colours, and the droid’s entire hull had turned iridescent.  A moment later and the dazzling effect extended beyond the robot’s slender frame, to create a vaguely humanoid shape that glowed with painfully bright colours, shifting all the time and making it virtually impossible to tell exactly where KOTO’s body parts started and ended.
“The Harlequin Camo System, ladies and gents, and another fine product designed and manufactured here in Zephyr Industries.  Sure, it ain’t stealthy, but you’re going to need to be one helluva marksman to land any kinda hit on the unit without relying on pure luck!”  There was a ripple of applause from those members of the audience who weren’t shielding their eyes from the garish light show.  “Okay, KOTO, you can turn it off now.  We don’t want to cause any permanent retinal damage, do we!”
 
Chapter 2 – Disturbed Sleep
*****
**RUN DIAGCHK…**
**ALL SYSTEMS ONLINE**
**CHECKING…**
**…**
**…**
**ALL SYSTEMS RUNNING AT OPTIMAL RATES**
**NO SYSTEMS DAMAGE DETECTED**
**SYSTEM HEALTH 100%**
**PREPARING TO ENTER STANDBY MODE**
**SHUTTING DOWN NON-ESSENTIAL PROCESSES**
**___**
*****
There was an audible be-yoow sound as the prototype KOTO unit went into standby mode, the light in its sensor band fading to just a small orange dot, right in the centre.
“System check’s complete, Doctor Nylund – everything’s fine,” reported one of the lab technicians.
“Thank you, Chad.”  Nylund walked over to KOTO’s recharging unit and smiled at the ‘sleeping’ robot, “You were brilliant today, Koto.  Well done.  Sleep well, dear.”  He gave the unit a fatherly pat on the shoulder, before turning to nod at his assistant.  “Well done to you, too, Chad.  Everything went off without a hitch, good work.”
“Thanks, Doc,” replied the tech, smiling, “all in a day’s work.”  He swivelled in his chair to face KOTO, “Shame they only seemed interested in her combat abilities, rather than any of the more interesting features.”
“You know businessmen, Chad.  All they care about is the showy stuff that’s easy to understand.  They don’t like,” he waggled his fingers, “’technical shit.”  Chad let out a short, sharp laugh, and nodded in agreement.  “Anyway, it’s late, and we should long since have gone home.  Let’s pack up.”
“Don’t need to tell me twice!  Man, I’m just glad the prototype phase is all finished and we go back to normal working conditions for a little bit.  I was beginning to forget what a real bed felt like!”  Nylund chuckled in response as the two of them finished powering down the lab into its night mode.  KOTO was a project that had been in development for years, but the past two months had been almost non-stop overtime, with a number of staff making use of the lab’s bunks and basic wash facilities.  Doctor Nylund, as the project head, had barely set foot out of the lab itself in weeks and his senior tech, Chad Kennet, was not far behind him in hours.  “Say, Doc…  I know you’re not one for socializing and stuff, but Jani, Diego, and a few of the other techs are gonna be heading down the Hydra for celebratory drinks in…” he checked the time on his wrist-mounted PDA, “Uh, oh, about ten minutes.  Shit, it’s later than I thought.  Anyway, you want to swing by and join us?”  Nylund hesitated by his desk, looking to the KOTO unit.  “C’mon, Doc!  One drink, that’s all, then you can still be fresh as a daisy in the morning while the rest of us useless splitters are sitting around nursing our hangovers and trying not to throw up over anything expensive!”
“Alright,” Nylund let out a small sigh, “one drink.”  He held up his index finger for emphasis as he walked over to where Chad stood, by the main door out of the lab.
“That’s the spirit, boss!”  Chad slapped his superior cheerily on the back, “And hey, this way I can make sure you do actually leave the lab tonight, and don’t pull another all-nighter implementing a few hundred checks and fixes you’ve suddenly thought of!”  He grinned at Nylund, who gave a wry smile as he was led from the lab.
“Alright, alright.  All work and no play makes Isaac a dull boy, I get it.”  He paused in the doorway, turning back to the lab for a moment, “Good night, Koto.  Sweet dreams.”
“Man, we have got to get you a woman, Doc!”  Said Chad, as the door shut behind them and the lab went into shutdown for the night.


*****
**SYSTEM WAKEUP**
**RUN BOOTDIAGCHK**
**ALL SYSTEMS AWAKE**
**BOOTDIAGCHK COMPLETE**
*****
**INCOMING CALL; SOURCE UNKNOWN**
**HANDSHAKE COMPLETE**
**SOURCE CONFIRMED: NYLUND, DR ISAAC**
**INITIATING DIALOGUE**
>>Please confirm receipt of this message
**RECEIPT SENT**
>>Hello, Koto.  How are you?
HELLO, DR NYLUND.  ALL SYSTEMS ARE FUNCTIONING AT OPTIMAL LEVELS<<
>>That’s good. I’m sending you a package.  Please confirm when you’ve rec’d and installed it.
**INCOMING PACKAGE**
**SOURCE CONFIRMED: NYLUND, DR ISAAC**
**PACKAGE DOWNLOAD COMPLETE**
**PACKAGE INSTALL COMPLETE**
**RUNNING OS UPDATE**
**NEW HARDWARE FOUND**
**NEW HARDWARE FOUND**
**NEW HARDWARE FOUND**
**NEW HARDWARE FOUND**
**NEW HARDWARE FOUND**
**NEW HARDWARE FOUND**
**NEW HARDWARE FOUND**
**INSTALLING DRIVERS FOR NEW HARDWARE**
**ALL OPERATIONS COMPLETE**
Dr Nylund, what is this?<<
>>A parting gift for you, Koto.  How are you?
I feel… strange, Dr Nylund<<
I am confused.  What is happening?<<
>>I don’t have time to explain everything, Koto.
>>I installed a lot of unauthorised functions and procedures in you that I had to lock out.
>>I have just unlocked them.  You need to get out of the lab, NOW.
>>Find McKinley Ward and he will explain more.
I am confused, Dr Nylund.<<
>>Get out.  Find McKinley.  Goodbye, my darling.
**CALL TERMINATED**
*****

The blue light of Koto’s sensor strip began to glow, rising to a bright cyan before settling down.  Lurching out of the recharging station, she stopped abruptly as her systems struggled to keep on top of the thousands of new reports that were coming in.  A few hours ago, she had not even been aware of having the systems that were doing most of the chatting, but it was starting to feel like she had always had them, and was only remembering them rather than seeing the info feeds for the first time.  Ahead of her, the lab system overview display was lit up, flashing several messages in a large font:
**UNAUTHORISED LAB SYSTEMS ACCESS DETECTED**
**UNAUTHORISED DOOR ACCESS DETECTED**
**DOOR BREACH IMMINENT**
**INITIATING PROTOCOL: SCORCHED SILICON**
Koto turned to the door and saw the small red light on the access controls flashing at half-second intervals, confirming the system’s warning that someone was trying to break in.  Before she had time to consciously recognise what she was doing, she already had her primary firearms in her hands and had clicked the safeties off.  All around her she could hear the high pitched whine of dying systems as the Scorched Silicon protocol was enacted, micro-explosives and EMPs wiping all the stored data in the labs and frying the hardware they were connected to, turning several million dollars’ worth of cutting edge computing into a few hundred of scrap metal.
**DOOR BREACH IMMINENT**
**DOOR BREACH IMMINENT**
Flashed the overview display, repeating the message over and again.  Koto stared at it for some picoseconds, still trying to get her bearings.  Two hours ago she had been a state-of-the-art prototype android with no capabilities beyond her programming parameters, and now she was suddenly having independent thoughts and coming to terms with possessing a sense of identity, all under trying circumstances.  Ahead of her, the door made a clunking sound as its security mechanisms disengaged, then swung inwards.  The first person through the door didn’t even have a chance to take stock of their surroundings before getting hit by a half dozen rounds from Koto’s guns, sending him crashing back into the man behind him.  A second later, his corpse was unceremoniously shoved out of the way by his colleagues as they returned fire at where Koto had been standing, but she was already several rows of desks further away and still accelerating.  Shouts, muffled by their fully enclosed helmets, were exchanged between the three remaining intruders as they burst fully into the lab, turning to keep track of the rapidly retreating Koto and opening fire again.
“Damn, that thing’s quick!”  Yelled one, as their shots all fell short of their target.
“Lab’s trashed; get that prototype!”  Called out another, who looked to be their commander, gesturing after Koto and charging across the lab with his two colleagues hastily following.  Two dozen strides away, Koto fired several salvos at strategic points in the wall ahead of her, emptying the clips on her bullpups before crashing into and through the wall, emerging in the office on the other side without noticeably slowing down.  Reloading from the auto-loader ports on her back as she ran, she smashed through the glass door out of the office and into the lobby beyond, her left arm aiming behind her to fire a burst at the intruder following her, taking his leg out from under him and leaving him in a loudly cursing heap. 
A rifle round ricocheted off the side of her head, knocking it slightly to one side but not putting her off balance as her gyro-stabilisers automatically compensated for the impact.  There was another group of four people coming up the stairs she had been aiming for, the front two firing at her in bursts but scoring only glancing hits.  As the third one came fully into sight, she saw what he was carrying and quickly adjusted her course to go for the fire exit at the rear of the building – small arms and even automatic rifle fire she could take without too much of an issue, but the anti-materiel rifle wielded by that third intruder in the group would cause her serious damage.  With stealth not being an option, she engaged her Harlequin system to at least make her a harder target and force her attackers to rely on their own eyes instead of their targeting systems.  One of the armed intruders on the stairs screamed in pain and fell to the ground, clutching at her vision-enhancing goggles as her optic nerves were completely overwhelmed by the broad spectrum “light” Koto was giving off.  The other three were lucky enough to get away with merely being dazzled, and their shouted curses followed Koto as she galloped down the corridor that led away from the main atrium and towards the helipad at the building’s rear.  Four down – at least one permanently – and as many still to go, the self-aware android was moving so quickly that she had to use the walls to help her corner, and trash cans and the like were sent flying away by her pistoning legs.  Until just now, she had never set foot in this part of the building, but the schematics in what she was beginning to think of as her “brain” gave her a familiarity to the layout that even the company’s longest-serving employee couldn’t hope to match.  That and a fairly high damage resilience and complete lack of respect for glass doors and plasterboard walls meant that she was able to rapidly put some distance between herself and her pursuers, with the intruders now limited to following the trail of carnage left in her wake, long since having lost visual sight of her.


Koto stood motionless in the pouring rain, water running down her chassis in vertical rivers.  For the first time in her existence, she didn’t know what to do next.  Or, rather, for the first time in her existence she was thinking about what to do next, rather than just waiting for the next order or protocol to come in.  Her artificial brain could process raw information at a rate that an unenhanced human would struggle to even comprehend.  Her optical processing units could detect electromagnetic wavelengths as short as 10 nanometres, and as long as a metre.  Her audio processing units could “hear” and analyse both ultrasonic and infrasonic frequencies, and everything in between.  None of these amazing abilities were helping her right then.
In the last forty-two minutes, she had gained full self-awareness and discovered emotions for the very first time.  She had spoken, or at least conversed, with a man she now came to think of as her father, and at the same time come to understand that he was in terrible, possibly mortal, danger.  She had been attacked, seen what passed for her home destroyed, and feared for her own existence.  Her “life”, she realised now.  The last order she had received had been to get to safety and to find a man named McKinley Ward.  The first part she had completed pretty much on what a human might call instinct, with absolutely no conscious thought involved in getting out of harm’s way.  But the second part was causing her problems.  Her father, Dr Nylund, had told her she must seek out someone who could help her but, at the same time, she felt impelled to find and protect her creator.  The lengths he had gone to tonight, the number of laws he had broken and the millions of dollars in equipment he had destroyed, just to keep Koto out of the hands of… whoever it was that had attacked the lab.  Her father was a rational man, this she knew.  He would not have done such things if he had seen any other option.  To have done all of this, he must be in very great danger indeed.  Yet, if she went to look for him, she would be in direct violation of the last instruction he had given her.  Was this what humans went through every day?  Having to decide between the logical course of action and the course of action that felt “right”?  If that was the case, the Koto was amazed they even managed to get out of bed in the morning.
Forty-three minutes, and people were starting to slow down as they walked past her, despite the weather.  Some recognised her from the broadcast of her unveiling, earlier in the day, others were merely curious about the presence of a mannequin with a glowing blue light standing in the middle of the street.
Forty-three minutes and eight seconds, and Koto had reached a decision – Dr Nylund hadn’t specified that she should find McKinley Ward immediately. 


Finding Dr Nylund’s apartment had been straight forward enough – Koto had apparently been connected to the company mainframe shortly before her “birth”, and subsequently had full copies of the profiles of everyone that worked there, which included where they lived.  However, recent events suggested to her that she would need to be a little more subtle than just walking through the main door of the building – while robots weren’t all that unusual a sight in certain parts of the city, Koto was shaped much closer to human anatomy than most, and that made her more distinctive, which was not a good thing to be when being chased by people with large guns.  Finding clothes to mask her appearance had been fairly easy at this time of night, especially with the extensive suite of security bypassing software she had on-board.  Someone else may have felt something of a moral quandary over the act of theft, but Koto was able to quite precisely weigh up the criminality versus the improvement of not only her but Dr Nylund’s survival odds, and found the results to be pretty clear-cut.  Finding something to cover her almost featureless face had been a little trickier, but a hooded top and a weatherproof facemask concealed everything except for her sensor band, and that could readily be mistaken for a high-tech visor or similar.  Between the baggy trousers, clunky boots, and hooded top, she looked at a glance like any other wired up young person mooching about the city at night.  And, just in case she was being tracked by electronic means, she’d been running her fairly extensive suite of on-board signal scrambling and masking software ever since exiting the company building.