The Salamandyrs and the Automata (short story)

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Cupid Fact File #624: The Salamandyrs and the Automata was a Crew of the Copper-Colored Cupids short story written by Lupan Evezan.

Contents

Plot

Cupid Fact File #624 relates the intertwined histories of the Order of the Automata and the Imperial Salamandyr Army. They begin in the mid-20th century of the Prime Universe, in the laboratory of Professor Scarper of the First Horde. Having recently presented his project of creating “an army of mutated animals” to serve the Horde, Scarper has been given a limited budget and a short span of time in which to create a proof-of-concept. To do so, he captures a dozen wild salamanders and rushes the mutation process, creating human-sized Salamandyrs whose morphology is highly unstable, reverting into their original form upon coming into contact with “a seemingly-random assortment of substances”, chiefly lavender — which is highly inconvenient to Scarper, who enjoys lighting lavender-scented candles as he works. Writing the Salamandyrs off as a failure, Scarper briefly tries experimenting on squirrels, then abandons this idea as well and realises he needs “what every mad scientist has: an assistant”.

He approaches another Horde scientist, none other than the future Creator of the Crew of the Copper-Colored Cupids; a “technological expert” who previously created the brainwashing devices used by the Horde, she agrees to build him a robot assistant in exchange for the formula to “a substance which could genetically override a subject’s brain and cause them to feel any pre-programmed emotion in immense quantities”. With the hurriedly-crafted robot's help, the Professor captures a couple of magpies, nicknaming them Mr Heckle and Dr Jeckle, and successfully mutates them into the first members of the future Mob of the Maroon Magpie; despite an unfortunate penchant for thievery, the Magpies are deemed enough of a success by Scarper's overseers to greenlight the wider project. Over the following months, the robot works with Scarper on the development of the Drove of the Database-Compiling Dromedaries (with “a small break on Thanksgiving to create a few turkeys”), but gradually develops a personality of his own, growing dissatisfied with Scarper's treatment of him as little more than a tool.

After Scarper refuses to mend his ways, the robot finally decides to escape, and is talked by the Salamandyrs into helping them escape as well. Adapting a “pet project” of his creator's, the robot builds a ramshackle Void Ship with which the group are able to escape not only out of the Horde's base, but out of the Prime Universe altogether; winding up at the Interdimensional Tavern, the Salamandyrs decide to steal better Void Ships from the parking lot, ignoring the robot's ethical qualms. Thus, they find their way to an uninhabited, swampy dimension which they decide to make their new home, dubbing it Salamandria. Between continued mistreatment from the Salamandyrs and the inhospitable nature of the humid environment to a mechanical being, the robot soon decides to run away again, “stealing” one of the Void Ships and flying it back to the Tavern, where he returns it to its owner.

After spending a while studying dimensional theory and ship-building, he begins building a fleet of better ships and founds the Order of the Automata, pledging his life to rescuing and assisting other mistreated robots like himself. As it grows, the Order soon finds an uninhabited dimension of its own and claims it under the name of Automatia. Meanwhile, however, the “self-appointed” Salamandyr Emperor grows increasingly dissatisfied with ruling just one dimension, and, creating a vast fleet of stolen Void Ships and scores of weapons, they begin attacking and sometimes conquering dimensions throughout the Multiverse. Eventually, they reach Automatia, precipitating the First Great Salamandyr War. The conflict drags on for multiple years, but after the Salamandyrs manage to destroy the founder-robot — now known as “the Ancient One” — in a sneak attack, the grieving Automata rally with renewed force and manage to drive the Salamandyrs back to Salamandyria, ending or at least curtailing their dreams of infinite conquest.

The Fact File note that there was a further encounter between the Salamandyrs and Automata some time later; “for those curious, it is recommended that one reads Incident Report C304B, concerning one Marksmanship-522's quest for a bit of peace and quiet”.

Worldbuilding

Universes

Other

Continuity

Behind the scenes

Read online

The story can be read for free on the Crew of the Copper-Colored Cupids website.