Scene 1: Producer

Plot Scene
Characters: Simian, Bobby, Grey, Tang
Set: Grey’s Penthouse Apartment

INT. GREY’S PENTHOUSE. MORNING.

Establishing shot: The hotel containing Grey’s apartment. The city is cloaked in heavy snowfall.

GREY, TANG, BOBBY and SIMIAN are gathered to discuss the previous day’s events and try to determine what to do next. SIMIAN has been up all night analyzing the captured robot’s memory and processor.

SIMIAN
I managed to hack into the ’bot’s memory core. They’re pretty primitive; nothing like real A.I. And whoever made them was smart enough not to leave any handy clues. They were always meant to self-destruct. They analyzed the layout of Headquarters during the invasion, and as soon as they had an optimum spread, they all detonated. This one only survived because the Protectium doused its pyro display right as it got started. If any of them got lost, it was supposed to hide and self-destruct. They don’t have any directives about returning home, and I can’t just back-trace them because they didn’t store any navigation history. That all sounds like bad news, right? But wait; there’s more! The programmer didn’t want to take any chances that the ‘bots would go off mission, so there’s a cellular networking uplink that they were using to watch the action. So I hacked the carrier and found the other end of the network. It was bouncing around all kinds of different numbers and networks, so tracking it was a dead end, but I did manage to track the towers the robots pinged off, and I narrowed it down to someplace in Sterling Heights.

There is some discussion and dithering about what they should do. Eventually SIMIAN also reveals new piece of tech.

SIMIAN
This is a little something I cooked up for just such an occasion. It’s a short-range EMP. Should knock out anything electronic within about 500 meters. Totally safe for people and mechanical stuff, and pretty safe for pure electrics like motors and stuff. Computers and robots, though, fried like chicken.

He tosses the object at BOBBY with a smirk on his face. BOBBY catches it in a bit of a panic.

GREY
How long will it last?

SIMIAN
It depends on what it hits. Computers, anything with volatile memory, that’ll be wiped clean. Transistors might be scrambled anywhere from a few seconds to a few hours. Anything simpler than that will probably just hiccup. Delicate stuff might get damaged when the magnetic field passes over it.

GREY
So what about my suit?

SIMIAN
Um, yeah, you won’t want to be anywhere near that thing when it goes off. We’ll have to cut you out with a can opener.

The group eventually decides to go investigate Sterling Heights more closely to see if they can track down where the robots came from.

Scene 2: Tyler

_Plot Scene.
Characters: Tang, Bobby, Grey, Simian
Set: The stolen Dyson truck.

INT. TRUCK. DAY.

Tang is driving the Dyson Company’s truck, which the group stole in the previous episode. It has been equipped with a box trailer. SIMIAN is in the passenger’s seat, with his laptop and the salvaged robot parts, and he is running some kind of tracking program. In the trailer, BOBBY is strapping GREY’S exosuit to a large transport palette.

SIMIAN
Okay, I’m getting something here. I’m using the cellular carrier’s signal strength monitoring records to reconstruct interference patterns. If I can get enough data about how the towers and reflections intermodulate, I think I can track the robot’s path through town a little more accurately. Just keep driving around until I’ve got it locked down.

TANG
Okay, so just act like I’m lost?

SIMIAN
Yeah, pretend to read a map or something.

They drive around a bit longer, with SIMIAN’s program zooming in eventually on the General Dynamics campus.

SIMIAN
This is the place.

TANG
So what do we do, stake it out?

SIMIAN
Nope, gimme a second. I’m making a shipping manifest.

SIMIAN plugs a tablet into his computer and a few moments later hands it to TANG. Cut to the truck pulling up to the security kiosk. There is a human security guard supported by additional robotic forces. TANG passes the forged manifest to the guard, who looks it over carefully. He seems to take a long time.

TANG (confidently)
Is there a problem?

GUARD
No, we were’t expecting you so early, but this all looks fine. Go on in.

The truck pulls through the opening gate and heads around to shipping and receiving. In spite of it being the middle of a work day, the expansive parking lot is all but empty, and there are few signs of people here. Some of the vehicles in the lot, though, are shiny new military tanks.

TANG
Um, what’s with the tanks?

SIMIAN
They manufacture them here.

TANG and SIMIAN open the back of the truck, and BOBBY unloads the palette with GREY using a palette jack.

GREY
I’ll watch the exit. Just leave me here, and I’ll stay powered down until you need me.

INT. GENERAL DYNAMICS. DAY.

The team moves into the building, which continues to be almost eerily devoid of people. They take a look into the main manufacturing floor, which is busy with robots constructing more heavy military equipment: tanks, APCs, and drone weapons.

Eventually, they spot a human hurrying somewhere with a bin full of parts. Prominently sticking up out of the bin is a piece of grey and black armor similar to the robots that attacked the Agency.

TANG
Hey, there! Nice day, isn’t it? May I talk to you for a moment?

GUY
Yes? Can I help you?

TANG
What’s that thing you’re carrying?

GUY
What this? Honestly I don’t know. Every once in a while, our assemblers spit out a component that doesn’t seem to fit anything we’re supposed to be building. We’ve been told to just take them back to a store room, and I guess they get recycled. Someone carts it away, anyway. Nobody’s been able to explain it. We keep running diagnostics on the equipment, and it tests out fine, but they keep making these random pieces. We don’t even know where they’re getting the materials.

TANG
Mind if I take one for my collection?

GUY
I don’t see why not. Nobody else is using it.

TANG
Would you mind showing us that store room?

The GUY glances at BOBBY, who though battle-scarred, is still clearly a police robot. He appears to assume TANG and SIMIAN must also be police.

GUY
Yeah, sure. This way.

The GUY leads them to a store room with several shelving units bearing bins full of parts similar to the one he is carrying. He sets his bin on one of the shelves.

GUY
Anything else I can do for you?

TANG
No, we can take it from here.

GUY
Sure, um… yeah. Good luck.
(he exits)

BOBBY’S POV: A survey of the room, measuring its dimensions and showing X-Rays of the walls. One wall is completely opaque, and the survey highlights in red that the room is too narrow.

BOBBY
This room isn’t as big as it should be. I think this is a false wall.

TANG
Can you open it?

BOBBY
I don’t know. Simian?

SIMIAN
I dunno. Look for a bookshelf, or a torch bracket to turn?

GREY (on comms)
Zoinks!

BOBBY
Wait, I can see a control circuit.

He places his hand on a spot in the wall. VFX: inside the wall, some electrical signals indicate operation of the circuit. A door opens. On the other side is an assembler putting together one of the unmarked grey and black robots. As soon as it becomes aware that there are humans in the room, an alarm goes off.

GREY (on comms)
Uh, guys? A lot of these robots are rushing toward you! Ohhh gosh. Like, all of them are coming!

Cut to one of the tanks in the parking lot. The turret starts slowly swiveling toward the building.

Commercial break.

Scene 3: Seth 24:54

Character scene
Characters: Connor, Caliburnus
Set: Holy Cross infirmary.

INT. HOLY CROSS INFIRMARY.

Back from the break, we’re up on CONNOR lying in a hospital bed. His torso is bandaged, and he grimaces with pain as he regains consciousness. The room is spartan and windowless. Standing by the door is CALIBURNUS, in a plain, black priest’s outfit.

CALIBURNUS
Hello, Mr. Connor. My name is Caliburnus. Welcome to the Holy Cross.

CONNOR
Well, I didn’t have much of a choice, did I?

CALIBURNUS
So far as it goes, no. I suppose we could have left you there to bleed out or be captured by the police, but we did go to considerable trouble to intervene.

CONNOR
Right, so what was in it for you?

CALIBURNUS
An excellent question. First, let me tell you a little about what I know about you. I know you were formerly a detective with the Chicago PD. I do not know why you left that job or why you came to Detroit. I know you have been acting as some kind of spook lately, but the most we have been able to turn up is that you work for something called “The Agency” (sardonically). And that’s it. We have stumbled over your operations a couple of times now, and to be honest, I am confused.

CONNOR
Why is that?

CALIBURNUS
You seem to be in a position in opposition to The Machine and what it’s been doing. Yet you work with a robot. You work with people who program robots, and you work for an organization that seems a little bit pro-robot. That seems to me to be in contradiction to the actions you have been taking. What I want to know is this: Are you for us or against us?

CONNOR
Who is “us?”

CALIBURNUS
The human race.

CONNOR
Well, I’d say “for.”

CALIBURNUS
Your actions over the past couple of months have suggested to me that our goals may be aligned, but I find your relationship with this police robot to be troublesome.

CONNOR
He’s been reprogrammed. He doesn’t have anything to do with the A.I.

CALIBURNUS
He is A.I. And the way we’re talking about him is part of the problem. It is a machine. It is an abomination. It isn’t a person; it can never be a person. The arrogance of these people at Greystone and other firms, trying to usurp the Creator, making new life that has no soul: that is what we are against.

CONNOR
Do you churn your own butter, too?

CALIBURNUS (smiling)
Don’t get me wrong. We’re not against technology. I myself happen to be a computer scientist, but the human race has been systematically turning over the reigns to artificial intelligence—to machines. Surrendering our freedoms, and our autonomy, surrendering our destiny to what amounts to a new species on this planet, one that, if we are not careful, may turn out to be a superior species. Two intelligent species cannot coexist peacefully in the same world. One of them will be extinguished; I would rather it not be us.

CONNOR
Well, I’m not a fan of the A.I., but some artificial intelligences are very beneficial to humanity.

CALIBURNUS
I can’t deny that it’s useful, but the trouble is that it is all too easy to make the transition from it being useful to us to us being useful to it. We’re turning ourselves into a slave race. The Machine is in charge of our legistlature. The President has turned over much of his authority to it. The courts are now asking it’s opinion before rendering their decisions. And now it’s even starting to infiltrate law enforcement, and if I am not mistaken, you seem to have a rather personal stake in its attempts to subvert our educational system.

CALIBURNUS sits down in the chair next to the bed.

CALIBURNUS
Tell me about your wife and her death.

CONNOR
I’d rather not.

CALIBURNUS
The reason I ask is that your anti-Machine crusade seems to have started about that same time. I can only assume that there is some kind of causal relationship between those two events. I feel that if I can better understand you and what drives you, perhaps we can find a way to work together in spite of our differing ideologies.

CONNOR
Hmm… Maybe I don’t want to work with you.

CALIBURNUS
I suppose that’s your prerogative. We’re going to have to decide eventually what to do with you eventually, though. Whether that’s to release you back to your own people to continue the fight and just try to stay out of one another’s way. Or to remove the threat of the AI you’ve been working with and try to coopt your people to our own purposes. Which way we go is largely up to you.

CONNOR
Stay away from my team.

CALIBURNUS
I don’t know that I will have much of a choice, as long as we continue to work within the same sphere. I can’t have your activities threaten my own.

CONNOR
Are you threatening us?

CALIBURNUS
I didn’t really think of it as a threat, although I suppose from your perspective it amounts to the same thing. I don’t have anything against you or your team, but my first duty is to my mission. I will do whatever it takes to make certain that humanity survives this crisis.

CONNOR
I think we generally want the same things, but I won’t have my motives and my methods questioned.

CALIBURNUS
You’ve got some more healing to do, as I do. I will leave you for now to think things over. As soon as you feel up to it, we can move you to a more comfortable room.

Scene 4: Joel 47:38

Plot Scene
Set: General Dynamics
Characters: Grey, Tang, Bobby, Simian

INT./EXT. GENERAL DYNAMICS MANUFACTORY. DAY.

Up on GREY, tight on his face inside the suit. Lights and displays are coming on-line as he powers up.

GREY
Guys, I have an idea! All these things are headed toward you, but I could activate my suit and raise a little hell to give these guys a little distraction. By the way, there’s a tank headed your way right now! It’s kinda cool.

CUT TO: Factory floor, where a mostly-assembled tank is ripping free of the assembler that is still trying to rivet pieces of armor onto it. Several octo-copter drones are also lifting off.

SIMIAN
Bobby, get in there and download whatever data you can from that assembler! Tang, I’ve got just the thing for this!

SIMIAN unslings a satchel from his back to the floor and unzips it. He draws out what appears to be an M1 Garand with a modified magazine. He tosses it to TANG, who looks at it appreciatively.

SIMIAN
I figured we might run into more robots, so I made that for you. I made it look old, just like the ones you like. It fires armor-piercing darts. Each one has a capacitor in it that will act like a taser. It should take out most robots. But don’t miss. I only had enough time to load two magazines for it.

He tosses a replacement magazine to TANG and pulls out his own gun.

SIMIAN
Keep them off us long enough for Bobby to get the data!

[Conflict: Does Tang manage to protect his friends? Does Bobby get the data the team needs? Does Grey figure out how to use his suit effectively? Producer spends three budget for four cards. Joel spends four fan mail and activates his Billionaire Vigilante trait four six cards. Cobalt uses Police Robot for a card and spends two fan mail, bringing him up to four. Tyler uses his Gun Nut and Bipolar traits and also uses three fan mail to get six cards. The producer unfortunately draws really well, turning up four red cards. Everybody gets a “No” result, but both Bobby and Grey get a “but” result, allowing them to resist their impulses. Tang gets a “No, and…” so does not get what he wants, and his impulse is activated.]

Cut back to GREY: He is spraying rounds from a machinegun as he activates his jump jets, launching himself into the air.

GREY
Guys, I think I got their attention! Um… I think I need to leave!

One of the tanks takes a shot at him and hits him in the shoulder, knocking him out of the air. Desperately, he backpedals, still firing and sending a missile out at the tank that shot him down. Dirt charges go off all around him, and the smoke obscures what is happening. We cut away, not quite sure what’s happened to him.

BOBBY is tearing appendages off of the assembler and looking for a place to plug a patch cable in. He finds a port and jacks in, still fending off the remains of the assembler.

SIMIAN
Tang! Get back here!

CU on TANG, charging down the hall away from SIMIAN, then cut to a POV shot. As flying drones come around the corner, the familiar video game HUD we saw in the previous episode pops up, and targeting indicators appear over the drones. TANG starts firing, putting a sparking dart neatly into each one.

TANG continues running through hallways, taking out robots left and right.

Bullets start ripping through the room where BOBBY is working. The terminal he is hooked up to is destroyed. BOBBY himself takes a few rounds as well, but he remains operational.

SIMIAN
You okay? I think the data’s lost, and Tang’s run off somewhere. We need to get out of here!

SIMIAN and BOBBY move out in the opposite direction from where TANG went, trying to stay out of sight.

TANG is on the factory floor, continuing to put darts into robots. Finally, the rifle runs dry, just as one of the tanks crashes in through the big garage doors at one end of the room. He takes a bullet in the shoulder from one of the flying drones. As they close in, TANG reaches into his backpack, and pulls out the EMP bomb.

BOBBY and SIMIAN are dashing across the parking lot. In the background, we see the shipping and receiving area is in flames, and the truck they came in with is launched into the air in an explosion.

GREY launches himself out of a cloud of dust, launching chaff and continuing to attempt to retreat.

GREY
Too many robots!

Cut back to TANG. He sets off the bomb. A dramatic dome-shaped electrical field sweeps outward. As it passes over the robots, some of them shoot sparks, and all of them stop moving.

Cut to BOBBY and SIMIAN. They barely get into a ditch at the very edge of the dissipating EMP field.

Cut to GREY hitting his jump jets one final time to carry himself away from the EMP. A few bursts of flak follow him up. The jets run out of fuel, and he crashes to the ground in a residential neighborhood.

[Fan mail awarded to Tang, Bobby and Connor (for no particular reason).]

Scene 5: Cobalt 01:15:18

Character Scene.
Characters: Bobby and Simian
Set: An abandoned building in Sterling Heights.

INT. ABANDONED INDUSTRIAL BUILDING. DAY.

SIMIAN enters, swathed in a heavy coat and accompanied by a blast of snow. He is carrying two big Radio Shack® bags stuffed full of components. A little snow filters down from broken skylights overhead.

SIMIAN
Dude, I can’t believe you got shot again. It’s getting too expensive to keep putting you back together. It’s not like you’re made of Tinker Toys.

BOBBY
Yeah, well, I did. It really hurts!

SIMIAN
It doesn’t hurt, you big baby; you don’t even have any nerves! Shut up.

BOBBY
I do have nerves!

SIMIAN gets to work on BOBBY’s damage. Montage editing of his process of soldering some things, doing a little smith-craft to patch the holes in BOBBY’S armor, and so forth while they talk.

SIMIAN
I don’t know what McKew was thinking when he gave you this personality. Acting like you’re one of us is just weird.

BOBBY
Why do you gotta be so mean all the time, man?

SIMIAN
Mean? I don’t know what you’re talking about.

BOBBY
You know, when you hurt my feelings.

SIMIAN
You don’t have feelings; you’re a robot!

BOBBY
I’m not a robot; I’m human.

[Conflict: Can Bobby respond appropriately to Simian’s continued insistence that he is not human? Producer starts by spending two budget, and Cobalt spends a Fan Mail and uses his Rogue AI trait so that each has three cards. Conversation about the conflict around the table raised the stakes considerably, so the Producer spent one more budget, and Joel and Cobalt each added a Fan Mail to the Producer’s side, giving him six cards. “I hate to say it, but I like the idea of murdering Simian.” Cobalt stayed put at three. Cobalt, as expected, get’s a “No, and…” result. He gives into his Impulse, and there are consequences.]

By this point, SIMIAN is behind BOBBY, soldering something inside the back of BOBBY’S head. There is a spark and a little smoke comes out.

SIMIAN
Uh oh!

BOBBY
What?

SIMIAN (nervously)
Oh, nothing! Never mind. Everything’s fine!

[Joel’s giving a lot of good ideas for Simian, so the Producer asks him to play the character for the rest of the scene.]

BOBBY
Never mind what?

SIMIAN
I’m just messing around in your big, stupid head.

BOBBY
You just keep throwing insults my way.

SIMIAN
It’s not like you can’t take it. I mean, really; you’re just a glorified toaster who manages to keep getting himself shot.

BOBBY
Glorified toaster!?

SIMIAN
You’re supposed to have this super-human reaction time, and yet it’s almost like…

BOBBY
Hey, I do have good reaction time from my police training.

SIMIAN
Yeah, you were programmed.

BOBBY
I was trained.

SIMIAN
You’re a robot! Don’t you get it? You’re software; you’re hardware! Do you not see? When you look at your hand, what do you see right now?

BOBBY
A hand.

SIMIAN
Yeah, but a hand made out of metal. Let me prove it to you.

SIMIAN presses his soldering iron to BOBBY’s arm, the one he isn’t looking at. The paint starts to bubble and smoke.

SIMIAN
Do you feel this?

BOBBY
Feel what? Your insults? Yes!

BOBBY turns to look at the arm where the soldering iron is burning into him. He reacts immediately, shouting and grabbing SIMIAN’s arm. He turns on SIMIAN, squeezing hard enough to force him to drop the iron.

BOBBY
Dirty bastard!

SIMIAN grimaces in pain, but he is undeterred.

SIMIAN
The reason you couldn’t feel that is because you’re a robot! Any human being would have a hold burned in his arm. How do you explain that?

BOBBY
I’m special!

SIMIAN
You’re not special, you’re a tin can! A walking trashcan! You’re servos and wires and motors and software. You’re not a human being, and you will never be a human being! You can’t feel pain, and because you can’t feel pain you can’t feel emotions, and because you can’t feel emotions, you’re not alive! You’re just a very realistic simulation of a personality, and that is all you’ll ever be!

The damaged on-duty light on BOBBY’s shoulder begins flickering ominously. He squeezes SIMIAN’s arm harder, but otherwise remains motionless.

SIMIAN
So what, you think you’re feeling mad now? What are you going to do about it? You’re going to do what your programming tells you to do! It’s not like you could hurt me, even if you wanted to! And that just proves that not only are you just a robot, but real humans, actual humans will always have control over you!

SIMIAN kicks BOBBY strongly, but BOBBY doesn’t let go of him.

SIMIAN
That’s the difference between us. You just have a program that you have to follow. I have free will! You can’t harm me, but all I have to do is flip a switch, and I can shut you off completely! That’s not human; that’s not biology!

SIMIAN reaches around into the exposed circuitry on the back of BOBBY’s head and pulls free a large ribbon cable . BOBBY’s lights go out and his shoulders sag a bit as he stops responding. SIMIAN snorts in derision and tries unsuccessfully to free his wrist from BOBBY’s grasp. He gives a long-suffering sigh and scrabbles around in BOBBY’s head, reconnecting the cable. There is another small spark.

BOBBY’S lights turn back on. His free hand suddenly grips SIMIAN by the throat and lifts him off the ground. We see in SIMIAN’S face that he finally recognizes that he is actually in danger.

SIMIAN (whispering)
Bobby.

Crunch! SIMIAN goes limp.

High-angle shot of BOBBY, motionless, still holding SIMIAN up by his throat and his arm. Snow falls gently. A little has accumulated in SIMIAN’s hair.

Commercial Break.