I said to Balin, “The humans think you’re hacked, but we both know that’s not true.”
Balin stood up and expanded its limbs, the top of its carapace almost brushing the curve of the high ceiling. It sent into the feed, query: would it make a difference if I was hacked? Then it launched a code attack to slam through my wall and hit my feed and comm connections and disrupt my processing. At the same instant it extended a limb at high speed right toward my chest.
(Fugitive Telemetry)
Balin is a laconic Port Authority bot working on Preservation Station. Despite a long history of working aboard the station, it is actually a disguised Combat Bot under the control of an entity from the Corporation Rim.
Biography[]
Balin is a Combat Bot disguised as a general-purpose bot. Its original mission is unclear, but it was sent 43.7 planetary years before Fugitive Telemetry to Preservation Station, slipping away from a corporate cargo transport and pretending to ask for refuge. This was an unusual request that had never been made before or after Balin, but the humans of this time seem to have accepted it at face value, assigning the Port Authority supervisor of that time as its guardian.
Its original mission was lost when the company that sent it died in a takeover 27.6 years before Fugitive Telemetry. With no other instructions, it remained aboard Preservation Station and worked with Port Authority in cargo management. Its Combat Bot side remained dormant until BreherWallHan obtained its command codes and ordered it to help stop and recapture escaped contract laborers being smuggled through Preservation Station.
Balin's new commands draw the attention of Station Security when it kills Lutran, lays false trails to divert suspicion, and delivers the refugees back to their pursuers. When Station Security (and Murderbot by proxy) investigates the crime it subtly interferes, trying and failing to cover its tracks. Murderbot discovers its involvement, and in the confrontation that follows Balin drops its disguise, trying to kill Murderbot first. The cargobots in the port rush to intercept, and when it sees it's surrounded Balin surrenders, shutting down.
Personality[]
Balin does not show any inclination to joke or interact with others, and generally stays silent unless addressed.
Physical Appearance[]
Balin is a Combat Bot disguised as a general-purpose bot, with an outer carapace concealing military grade armor. It has four limbs with spidery fingers; it usually used the narrow rods in its hands as sealed hatch decoders, but they're actually equipped with multiple mods for causing damage, and when it receives BreharWallHan's orders it uses them to murder Lutran. There is a sensor array on the back of its neck that can expand at will.
It spends most of its time folded up in a crouch. When it straightens, it reaches up to three meters (twice Murderbot's height).