Reprogrammed

Brigitte chuckled and reached up to pat Robert's metal cheek. "You're such a sweetie," she said. "Alright, you stay there, I'll set everything up. Won't be long now." She fired up her desktop and set up her camera rig, turning on the golden halo light that made her look all warm and glowy. The computer was taking a while to connect, unsurprisingly given how far out in the country they were, so while it did that Brigitte reached into a drawer. "Okay, today I have to advertise this," she said, pulling out a small tub of some skin cosmetic thing. Brigitte sighed and looked a little defeated as she looked at the product list, but then the desktop was up and she began to set up the livestream.

The livestream was ready, so Brigitte mentally prepared herself and then began. She stood up slightly and then sat down again to make it look more natural. "Bon soir mes amis," she purred in a foreign language - French? But why? Then she began to talk about how she'd had a busy day but was continuously grateful and lucky, though she said it all in a strange accent. At the same time, she was casually applying the skin product to her face with the label facing the camera. When she was done with her speech, she gave Robert a little cheeky side eye. "Speaking of luck," she said. "Sometimes things just fall out of the sky that can change your life. Literally, for me." She turned the camera slightly so that Robert was visible in all his muckiness. "This is my new friend. I found him with the cows this morning, mon deux what a sight he was. Tomorrow I'll clean him up and see if he can help me out on the farm. But for now, mes amis, we are both tres tired so we will be saying a sweet bon nuit." She picked some straw off of Robert's shoulder, smiled at the camera, and then the live stream ended.

Brigitte shrugged and sighed. "It's hard to explain," she said in her normal voice as she cleaned him up with a wipe. "Firstly, the whole voice thing? My parents were French but I lost my accent while living here. Speaking like my parents helps to sell the whole... Authentic thing. All of the rest of the things I was saying are just to make people feel all fluffy inside, they like the escapism. I'm sorry for confusing you."

Brigitte giggled, but it was interrupted by a big yawn. "Very hazardous," she agreed, taking another wipe and taking off her makeup after only just putting it on. The skin product she'd just put on came off too. She put the wipes in the laundry bin and then stood up. "So do you, um, sleep? Or power down? Or something? Because it's getting pretty late and I need to rest."

"Hey, you can stay in here if you like," Brigitte suggested. She figured he'd just sort of stand there, robots didn't really lie down or whatever, and there was plenty of room in here. She grabbed a large t-shirt from her under pillow and pulled it over her head, then slipped the silky gown off from under it. "Ahh, that's better," she said as she clambered into bed and flopped down onto her pillow. "Do whatever you want," she yawned, waving her hand vaguely. "It's your... Choice..." Wow, she fell asleep super quickly.

They remained peaceful for a couple of hours, each passing hour marked by the chiming of a device down the corridor. Brigitte would teach Robert about the grandfather clock one day too. But on the chime of the third hour, there was a noise outside too, at first quiet but then followed by a loud banging sound. Brigitte sat bolt upright, confused and slightly grouchy. "What the hell?" she grumbled, stumbling to the window and peaking through the curtains.

"Sons of bitches," Brigitte was muttering. "I knew that perimetre border was faulty. God damn it, I am so tired." She looked at Robert, but saw that he was offline or something - well, she had told him to rest. Damn it. Along the hall, Moses and the other dogs were barking like crazy. Brigitte grabbed some boots out of the wardrobe and yanked them on, and then grabbed a surprisingly huge machine gun before sprinting out of the room.

When Robert went down the hallway, it Moses and another smaller Moses in the kitchen scratching at the door that led outside. Moses looked up at Robert and whined. It would appear that Brigitte had gone outside without them. Come to think of it, it was particularly bright outside considering it was the middle of the night. It appeared that a shield grid had been activated around the farm, at a distance that appeared to encapsulate the outer barns too.

There was a noise of men shouting a little ways off, and from a little closer by Robert could hear the various sounds of the animals, interspersed with Brigitte's voice. Robert would soon see that Brigitte was shepherding the animals into the second inner circle of shields, with the first being directly around her house. The third layer blocked off the barns, and was being attacked by the cartel. Brigitte's fourth layer of defence was an advanced shield grid that had failed, and as such the cartel had gotten in. These three inner shields were much more basic, so pretty soon the cartel would be inside the third layer. Brigitte had to get the valuable animals behind another layer of protection before taking on the cartel.

"Oh, Robert, thank goodness you're awake!" Brigitte said. She had just gotten the last of the animals through the gate and closed the shield. The third shield was starting to fizzle, implying that it would fail any moment. "I know what's happening Robert, and trust me I don't intend to let them get far. I just need to make sure the animals are safe, they're super valuable and I don't want any of them stolen. Now I need to... Uh, get rid of those guys." She was still carrying that huge gun with her.

"Nuh uh," Brigitte said, jogging alongside Robert. "This is my farm, my home, my life. I will do everything to protect it... Though, I could really use your help." When they approached the breach site, Brigitte realised that the cartel appeared to have recruited a few more members to try to break in this time. There were easily twenty men in a few trucks, with a bunch of them firing laser-drills at one of the shield generators. "iOye puta!" one of them yelled at Brigitte, which drew jeers and wolf-whistles from the others. "Vete, cabrónes," Brigitte snapped back, pointing her big gun at the intruders. This only drew more jeers and whistles.

The cartel seemed a little perturbed by the robot, and looked at each other to confirm that this robot was like the ones they'd had to deal with earlier. They would either be scared off... Or want revenge! They decided on the latter, and renewed their efforts to try to break in. Brigitte took a deep breath - she really hated what she was about to do as she raised her gun and was ready as the shield finally failed.

"Robert," Brigitte said in a wavering voice as the cartel began to rev their engines and advance. "They won't stop. I... We have to kill them." She really didn't want to, life was precious and all that. But her life was also precious, as were the lives of her animals, all of which would be extinguished in agony if the cartel got in. So it made sense to fight back. So before the cartel leader could call her 'puta' one last time, Brigitte shot him through the head. The cartel were enraged and began to fire back.