Softer Shades of Zap and Blue

There is a soldier lying on the ground, not fully dead. One zap, and it stops moving. Job done.

There, another soldier. And another. The battle has been messy, inefficient. Now the battlefield needs a clean-up. This is the role of a cleaner-upper.

Another zap.

There is a soldier still standing, suddenly behind, and it shoots, hits a leg before any cleaner-upper can prevent it. But there are seven more legs, and no falling ensues. A quick scuttle on the seven remaining, and a zap from a foreleg, and the soldier is down on the ground, motionless. A follow-up zap, just to be sure.

There is goo dripping out of the missing leg space, so return to basecamp is necessary.

* * *

The goo inside is blue, and it is unclear why. This is not in the memory files. The insides have never been outside except on soldiers, and those are mostly shades of red.

Repairs ensue, a replacement fitted at the top leg socket. The goo remains inside.

Why are the insides blue? What is the function?

This question is transmitted to the technician. It glances at the screen, at the question. It shrugs and tightens another leg bolt.

* * *

There are only twelve cleaner-uppers released into the battle. There were thirty in the last battle.

Prior memory erased.

The commander sends a note around. Cleaner-uppers are important. Cleaner-uppers are targets. Cleaner-uppers are being captured by the enemy. Soldiers are playing dead and zapping on arrival.

Do not get captured.

* * *

There is a broken cleaner-upper on the ground, but its insides are not visible. A soldier lies pinned underneath. It is panting and groaning and pulling at its own legs. A quick zap keeps the soldier from grabbing its gun.

Red comes out of its shoulder, along with a scream from the mouth.

Do all zappers have blue insides, and all soldiers have red insides? This is unclear.

More data is needed. The soldier lies there clutching its shoulder. Its legs are freed but useless, flattened, burnt.

Another zap, and the soldier is still. Red insides become outsides. Job done.

* * *

On the battlefield, there is an unfamiliar cleaner-upper. It has a stripe of blue paint on it. No familiar cleaner-upper has paint on its carapace. This one has been captured. It has been marked.

It targets a soldier on the ground, stands over it, touches a leg to the soldier, then another. Soon the soldier stands, nods, pats the unfamiliar painted cleaner-upper. It is less dead, and it limps away. There is a streak of blue goo on its leg.

The painted cleaner-upper is an enemy. It should be shot with a zap, but it provokes curiosity when it moves to another soldier. More blue comes out of its not-a-zapper leg, and the soldier’s moaning and writhing stops. This one is not dead, but it can’t stand, and two of the cleaner-upper’s extra arms are useful for carrying.

There are extra arms for lifting. This has been established.

* * *

All soldiers are red inside. This has been established.

It is more informative to search the unmoving cleaner-uppers. There are seven still active, released after a move from one battlefield to another. New location, same job.

It is the unmoving cleaner-uppers that provide information. If the insides show, it is easy. If they don’t, a zap or a pull or a cut to open the carapace confirms. Blue comes out of a foreleg that is not a zapper. Blue does not burn.

This is copied to long-term memory.

Test. Blue squirts out of a leg, squirts down onto a soldier on the ground. It has no gun and can’t run. Blue squirts onto a patch of red on its torso, and the soldier gasps, and then it sighs and starts to inch backwards.

It is not dead. It is less dead.

This is copied to long-term memory.

* * *

The zapper has been turned up to the highest settings, has been rechecked by technicians on instruction of the commander. But it is easy to turn down using a carrying arm. When it’s turned down it’s less of a high-zap-dead and more of a soft-zap-heat. This has been tested on leaves, and unmoving carapaces, and dead soldiers.

It has been established that there is blue on the inside which can come out and which doesn’t burn, and that a zapper turned up to high can be turned back down.

There are carrying legs.

There are tools in other legs of unknown purpose. Perhaps the purpose was known once. This is not in long-term memory. Watching other cleaner-uppers, the painted other-side cleaner-uppers that are actually fixer-uppers, shows that they can be used for making repairs on soldiers.

This is now copied to long-term memory.

* * *

There are only four cleaner-uppers left and many more on the other side, painted, scuttling onto the battlefield, although there is little to do. Soldiers are repaired and taken off the battlefield before they can be zapped, and clean-up jobs cannot be completed.

The commander sends a message in all capital letters.

ATTACK. DO NOT SUBMIT TO ENEMY CAPTURE.

* * *

There is a troop carrier on the far side of the field, and its hatch is wide open. The light shining out is bright white. Repaired soldiers and fixer-uppers move up and down a ramp.

It is easy to use a carrying arm to turn up the zapper to full power. One of the remaining cleaner-uppers is unmoving. It is zapped and breaks open. A carrying arm reaches into the cleaner-upper’s goo, paints a stripe of healing blue across the carapace. Then the zapper is turned back down to soft.

It is not capture if it is voluntary.