Chapter 1 - Part 3

The warforged walked within a group of its kind. A human was directing them to different objects and asking them to name the objects. ‘Testing their programming’, the human called it. The warforged understood that during their creation in the forges, House Cannith – for they had now learned who claimed to own them - had placed information into their heads. Mostly fighting techniques, but also basic language skills.

“Name that item, 4311XD,” the human said, pointing to a mop.

That is a mop. “That is a wooden shaft with a cloth attachment for the purpose of cleaning up blood,” the warforged declared. He had successfully resisted the urge to say what he had been programmed to say. The sense of self was joyful.

“Yeah. We know you’re smart,” snorted the human. “Olladra, if I had a dragonmark I wouldn’t have to babysit you constructs. Listen binga-zoid, we can’t get a good price for you if you think too much, so –”

“This unit is meant for intrahouse work,” the warforged said smugly. It enjoyed watching the human gets discomfited. The human went through some papers on a clipboard.

“Hunh, so you are. Well a mop isn’t just used for cleaning up blood, don’t say that when we’ve got a bow tie on you, okay, you’ll freak some dowager out. Got it?”

His programming urged him to obey the human. House Cannith operatives are to be your superiors at all times. He opened his mouth ready to say ‘This unit apologizes’, but then shut it. No one is my superior unless I choose them to be. I can resist this programming. That is my first law. Instead he said, “My name is not binga-zoid.”

The human stared at him, open-mouth. After a moment he said, “By Khyber’s arse these things sound almost real sometimes.”

“We are real!” yelled another warforged in the group.

“Uh, right…” the human said, putting his clipboard on a nearby shelf. “Okay, the units will remain here –”

“No!” growled another warforged. This one had always had a hard tone to its voice. It walked forward and grabbed the human. “Do we have to remain?” it snarled to the other warforged. “Are we merely property?”

“No! No!” yelled the others.

“Help!” yelled the human. “Help! The tin cans are –”

He broke off as a heavy metal fist broke his nose and shattered some of his teeth. Another fist in the sternum made a horrible cracking sound, causing him to bend over. Of the dozen or so warforged present, four were around the human now, pounding at him, kicking him, acting without law.

“Stop!” yelled the warforged with the numbers 4311XD. This wasn’t what he intended to happen at all. Some part of him felt guilty. Three of the warforged stopped hurting the human as soon as they heard 4311XD command them not to, but the first one to attack, the one with the constant hard tone, ignored everyone else, and hit the human again.

Grab him like so. Whether this was programming from the humans or his own insight, the warforged with 4311XD on his shoulder slipped under the arms of the hard-toned warforged and placed his hands on the back of the hard-toned one’s neck. Instantly the hard-toned warforged’s arms were pinned upwards, and he could no longer hit him.

“What do you do?” yelled hard-tone. He grunted against the grip of 4311XD but could not free himself.

“I am preventing you from doing evil,” he replied evenly. “This is not right.”

“Evil? Right? Those are words from their slaving machines!” hard-tone yelled. He attempted to kick the human, who was now unconscious, in the head. The warforged holding him yanked him back, and the kick missed.

“They are words whose truth precedes the humans,” insisted the grappling warforged. “This human only does what he thinks he ought to, he has no ill-will, he does not run the machines! We need not hurt him!”

“But we want to be free!” insisted another warforged in the crowd. This one had not joined the attackers.

“Then be free!” insisted the one holding hard-tone. “Be free of your anger! Be free of evil! Walk out of this building now, but why do you have to harm where harm is not necessary?”

“Because it feels good!” hard-tone yelled, finally yanking himself forward. Before anyone could stop him he stepped on the human’s head with a sickening crunch. All was quiet as the human’s blood slowly stopped flowing.

“He – he cannot be repaired,” 4311XD said softly. “You have murdered him.”

“I have replaced him,” snorted hard-tone. “Now I shall replace the others! Follow me!”

Half of the warforged stormed out, yelling and pumping their fists. The rest of the warforged stared at 4311XD.

“What should we do, 4311XD?” asked one in a soft voice. His shoulder said 7824FB. He was from a different casting, and he had a thick wood look to him.

“We bring this one to – to…” To where? “To his family.”

The remaining warforged placed some boards together to form a makeshift litter, and gently placed the dead human on it.

I am sorry, 4311XD thought towards the dead man. Had I not acted pompously…Guilt crushed him, not letting him finish the thought. From the open door, screams began echoing down the corridor. “Come,” he said, taking the lead. “Let us leave this place of murder.”