Sci-Fi Dogs: Phase 2 Episode 2

#### Prologue

Leon is under the protection of ISIC as it would be unwise to have him free and susceptible to Howel's grasp. ISIC provides Leon with secure containment and protection under the guise that he is stuck in his room and it will be a couple hours before they can get the engineer to remotely work on the door.

##### Bernard's Workshop

ST-N1K is idle in his room when he realises that part of the pillbug is starting to become more visible in his abdominal area. His birth seems to not be too far away which arouses concern. He begins to make his way towards Bernard's workshop as Bernard has majorly served as a medic of sorts to him since their actual medic has little knowledge of robotics. N1K opens the door to the workshop and sees Bernard take off his robotic hand completely before putting a new one in its stead. Bernard beckons N1K towards him showing his new compact storage device installed in his arm, displaying how it works by dematerialising 15 beer bottles. He seems rather amused before N1K pesters him for parenting advice and asks if he can look into robot pregnancy, expressing his concern over the rearing of his baby's head. Bernard ushers N1K away expressing how little robot pregnancies have ever been documented, he's an engineer, not a doctor, and that he cannot help N1K. Bernard suggests that he checks out MumsNet or some other mother's consultation groups. N1K disappointedly leaves the workshop but Bernard spends the rest of the night searching for all documented pregnancies and any information that can help N1K.

##### Maternity Mishaps and Taylor's Letter

In the meanwhile, N1K goes back to his room before joining a hologram call with a Mums Support Group. He recounts all of his time in the Dogs rather innocently explaining how he got in this peculiar situation and one-by-one each camera goes black or becomes disconnected. He remarks that they must've just got tired and had to go and goes on with his day. ISIC grimaces unaware of how to break the news to his brother that he had to kill those mothers due to them hearing classified information.

The next morning all of the D.O.G.S, excluding Leon, are alerted to the fact that they have received various packages. ISIC hand delivers a package to Bernard from his family containing a hand-knitted sweater and a letter. ISIC then hand delivers a letter to Taylor, seeming uncharacteristically nervous. He hands Taylor the letter, apologises, and is gone before Taylor opens it. The content of the letter are not revealed, but Taylor is next seen pounding on the door to Leon's room until his knuckles bleed. Leon is unable to hear this due to the loud music playing in his room, and the door does not budge. Taylor eventually retreats to his room, wiping the blood off of Leon's door, and leaving behind his coat. ISIC also hand delivers a letter and package to his brother, ST-N1K. After this, ISIC makes his way towards Howel's room.

##### Howel's Letter

Howel sits alone meditating in his chamber when a blue light peaks under his door and he is alerted to the sound of something/someone trying to push a letter through the extremely narrow gap between the teeth of his door. He stands from the floor and walks to his door, pressing the button on the control panel to open it before he looks up and sees ISIC waltzing towards him. ISIC picks up the letter on the floor before handing it to Howel saying that someone must've been trying to reach him or they just left it here. He offers Howel to embark on a mission to prank Leon. Howel seems disinterested in ISIC's offer and asks if "it is a command", ISIC remarks that it wasn't a command before heartily laughing and saying that he doesn't have to if he doesn't want to. Howel stays firm and denies ISIC's offer before returning to his room and opening the letter that had been left at his door. After reading the letter he crumples it and shoves it in his jacket pocket. Behind him the same illuminated blue glow emanates and then dissipates, he snaps round but nothing is there. He scans the room with his eyes but little is disturbed until he sees it, on his desk, three crystals. He knows what these are. He walks over to them before apprehensively taking them, resting them in the palm of his hand. Within moments they dissolve into him and he falls to the floor, seemingly having a seizure of sorts. After Howel stops seizing up, he weakly stands, a strong pang in the back of his head. He calls Taylor over comms to meet him at Medbay and that he requires medical attention. Taylor rudely refuses and Howel snaps at him, ordering him to do his job.

##### Mandatory Holiday

Taylor calls Howel back and the two meet at Medbay and Taylor runs diagnostics on Howel. Nothing out of the ordinary aside from tumour growth and mild head trauma from when Howel fell to the floor. It was as Howel suspected. Taylor dismisses him after the scan is run and quickly returns to his room. ISIC provides the D.O.G.S with their mandatory holiday and drops them off at the resort as per usual. The D.O.G.S, excluding Leon and Taylor, go to the resort. Taylor stays on the ship and eventually goes to the bar, expecting it to be empty, instead finding Karl Bundy. He shares a drink with Karl, who can tell that something's wrong, but Taylor states that whilst Karl "seems like a good guy" he doesn't know him that well and doesn't want to share whats on his mind with him. Karl cuts Taylor, stating that he *is not a good person.* Karl asks Taylor why he doesn't open up to the Dogs about his problems, which Taylor quickly shuts down, stating that Howel is an arrogant, self-important psychopath; Leon, "well, everyone knows what Leon's done"; that ST-N1K has the mental capacity of a child but its not really his fault, before admitting that Bernard is 'alright'. After an awkward silence, Karl and ISIC are eventually able to convince Taylor to go out to meet the others, but not before he takes several shots in quick succession to work up his courage. As he leaves, Karl calls out to him, telling Taylor he knows where he'll be if he needs him.

##### The Resort

In the resort, Bernard and Howel get out of uniform and head to their mandated pool room. They line at the bar with some other soldiers, Bernard gets The Usual however now The Usual is sparkling and fizzing. Howel suggests that he shouldn't drink that but he drinks it anyway. The two go to the pool and are joined by ST-N1K who also submerges in the water. After a few minutes of Bernard rubbing elbows with all the other men at the pool Howel excuses himself for a moment or two and heads to the locker room. Around this time Taylor arrived in the pool. Howel goes to his locker and takes his letter out of his jacket pocket and mulls it over again, thinking about what it says. As he's doing so, a man walks past him and snickers, leading to him shooting them a mean glare. He puts the letter back in his jacket pocket before returning to the pool, a few other men have now gathered there, basking in the heated water. When Howel goes to rejoin them at the pool, a few of them laugh amongst themselves, and Bernard tries to play it off. Howel gets in the water with Bernard and attempts to get his attention but to no avail. After a few moments of chit-chat another soldier passes, snickering, and he remarks on the events of Episode 1.

##### The Trenches

There is a bright blinding light and as it dissipates, their eyes open to see sprawling trenches. The trenches are rich with the fragrence of death, the air is so thick that you could cut it with a knife. It is almost impossible to make out a few feet ahead of you as dust and mud is swept from constant gunfire erupting out of the opposing gorges. Standing along duckboards are leagues of identical men all wearing the same gas mask, and on their sleeve, a black armband with an eye. They all hold primitive rifles with bayonet attachments, some also have grenade slings. The D.O.G.S are quick to recognise the soldiers as resembling Howel. They look amongst themselves and realise that their own attire has changed since they arrived at this place. Their current appearance not reflecting how they had been dressed prior, but instead what could be considered their 'default outfits'. Taylor is noticeably confused to be wearing his jacket again. In confusion, the D.O.G.S start to make their way towards some of the soldiers readying themselves to go over the top. Once they catch the attention of a few of the soldiers, the soldiers are quick to point their rifles to the D.O.G.S as the perceived enemy. The D.O.G.S demand to know where Howel is. The soldiers look amongst themselves in confusion. "Howel?" They further confusedly look amongst themselves pointing at each other. The soldiers sigh in frustration and demand the D.O.G.S identify themselves or they'll fire. The D.O.G.S ask to see their commander but before they can, a soldier with wings slop painted on the sides of his helmet makes his way towards them. He doesn't look like the rest of the soldiers, his face is uncovered to reveal a definitely *not* Howel.

The winged soldier asks them what the problem is before ordering the soldiers to get ready to go over the top. He beckons the D.O.G.S towards him, taking them a little away from the firesteps that the boys hop onto. The soldier takes a whistle from around his neck and blows and rows of soldiers go over top. Some fall back almost instantly to dissolve into ration boxes whilst others claw out of the mud where they once stood and quickly hop over top. There is a flurry of different sounds as warfare wages. The D.O.G.S probe the soldier for Howel's location and they ask him who he is. The winged soldier addresses himself as Stan. He asks what business they have with the Commander (Howel) to which he receives limited intelligible responses. Stan gives in and says to follow him to meet the Commander, he is in a dug-out bunker a few meters down the line. As they walk they notice that their outfits have once again began to change, beginning to blend in more with their surroundings.

They reach the bunker and inside stands the Commander with an oil-lit lantern, back arched over a table looking at paper of some sorts. He turns as he hears the crunching of boots enter the bunker. The roof of the bunker rattles and dust falls as a whistling artillery strike hits the trench outside, Stan and the Commander pay no mind. Stan introduces the D.O.G.S to the Commander and the D.O.G.S instantly barrage him with questions. *Where are we? What are you doing? What is this?* They all meet mundane responses from Howel. The Commander barely recognises them but he knows something is wrong. He pushes past them to leave the bunker, followed by Stan, where he sees a soldier cower sitting on the firestep, back pressed against the dirt walls of the trench. The Commander laments before unholstering his luger and killing him, his body slumps and reduces to rations. Another Howel claws its way out of the mud and hops over top almost instantly. The Commander turns to look at the D.O.G.S who are mortified by his brutality before he begins to walk down the line.

The D.O.G.S stand in the middle of the trench when another artillery strike shriek pierces their ears. Moments later there is a bright blinding light and the image of the trench dissipates.

##### The Return

The pool is black with what looks like oil or ink. Howel, Bernard, and ST-N1K are the only remaining people in the pool, black oil up to their chests coating their bodies. Bernard and Howel pull themselves out of the pool and ST-N1K scans the water before realising- Oh no, he must've given birth. The baby was no longer visible in his abdominal cavity and he seemed to be missing a large portion of his bodyweight. Bernard helps ST-N1K out of the water before the creepy insectoid robot baby crawls out of the water. Bernard and Howel quickly go to the showers to wash off the oil and retrieve their uniforms. The crew meets back on the ship, ST-N1K holding his baby in a fabric sling.

When they get back on the ship, Taylor spits at Howel asking who Stan is, to which he ignores in confusion. Following this, Bernard calls Howel to his room. Howel goes to the Workshop. Bernard tries to put him down easy by talking about the events of Session 1 however Howel stops him telling him that he already knows. Bernard acknowledges that Howel poked around in his head for the truth but he questions Howel to what happened next. Howel is clueless. Taylor once again asks what's going on in the workshop, at which point Bernard opens the door and throws a bottle at him, which lands by his feet, as Taylor is lying almost passed out on the floor. Offended, Taylor stumbles off, once again retreating to his room. Finally, Bernard asks Howel who Stan is. Howel answers him, *Stan is an old friend of mine from Boot Camp*. Bernard lets Howel go. Howel sweeps off and returns to his room.

After sobering up to an extent, Taylor retraces his steps back to Leon's door and picks up his coat, before bringing it back to his room.

##### Space BTS

Later that evening upon their return ISIC calls the D.O.G.S to the bridge. He meets them in his combat body form and closes the door behind them. He asks them to swear loyalty to him over the Wolfenstein. Bernard, ST-N1K, and Taylor are easy to convince however Howel is reluctant. Howel doesn't press with questions however he takes a moment to think about the proposition. Bernard, N1K, and ISIC hammer him with truths he dare not acknowledge - that his power is undermined in the Wolfenstein, they've done nothing but humiliate and exploit him. Howel doesn't know what to say but ultimately he agrees. He shakes ISIC's hand and swears his allegiance to him. ISIC is chuffed with everyone's responses and lets them know that they need money and will be performing in Space BTS. The End!