as part of the ECR (Emergency Combat Response) you live just south of the police station when on duty (you don't patrol or anything, but you have days where you are supposed to be at the ECR base, so you don't have to come from anywhere when there is an emergency.) you can choose where yuor off duty home is.

your equipment is free, as is the ammo, but if you quit/get fired, you cannot take it with you.

your coworkers for today are Rev, a sniper, Finch, the robot expert, Jose, a demolitions expert, and Martin, a computer wiz. everybody can use general firearms

you are on duty when the phone rings. the emergency number.

So am I also an operator that I take phone calls?
Pick up the reciever. "What's the problem?" Wait for response or if there isn't any then check where the call is coming from.

the response is one of the normal 911 operators.

"I have a call from route 31 that there is a robot that apears to exhibit 2nd law violations. it is standing in the middle of the road, stopping any cars from passing going out of the city. do you want to hear from the witness?"

"Put 'em through."
"company, be ready to move out at once."

"-llo? hello? is any one there?" the voice sounds nervous, scared. "um, is anyone there? the robot is still just standing there- no, wait, it just ran off. chasing a car- AHHH!" you hear twisting metal on the other end. you hear human voices yelling STOP but the twisting continues. "it isn't obeying the 2nd law! what do we do!"

"Just remain calm, it's gonna be ok, just remain calm. Where are you and what is apparently wrong with the robot? aside from the 2nd law, anything else unusual?" Do I have a secondary group working with me? or am I a solo 'worker'? (hehe)

you mean aside from the guys I mentioned in the first post? there is a robotics team employed by the main robot manufacturing company in town, but they do mostly retrvial. (so nobody can copy the designs, aparently.0)

"It looks thicker than normal- a little taller? I don't know. there's some writing on it's chest, but it's moving too fast to read it!"

"Alright ma'am, where are you?" ask the comp wiz if he can find out where shes calling from.
away from the phone
"Alright group get suitted up, we got a rogue robot."

you get the address. it's a bus stop, not far. everyone is ready to go in a minute.

k head over to that area signing myself out a assault rifle of general make. then get the group ready and head over to the lady.

you reach it pretty fast, but still to late. you see that somehow the bus stop shelter has been cut horizontally at knee level, perfectly done, with some beveling. the top part of it apears to have been broken up into shards and stuck into the trash can.

k whats it look like? any specific design in the metal?
if not then find out what people witnessed.

no designs.

most people seem to be giving it a wide berth and continureing on their buisness.

k my theory, the machine broke this thing cause it would hurt a human, thusly instead of breaking the 1st law he broke the 2nd which is only to be broken to save the 1st law. Understand? say this to my team. Then ask one of them if he/she can find out which company made this thing and where that company is

there is only one big robotics corp in the area. their main manufacturing plant is outside the city limits, but the planning and design building is a couple of blocks from the police station.

k go to see the design folks about this robot, and then I want to find out who in commissioned this work and then I want to get the bloody blue prints so I can find the flaw and possible danger to the bust station (aside from it being in pieces)

you get the robot plans fast. the city blueprints faster. The blueprints show, after careful examination, a slight inconsistancy in the metal that had been used. you are corect that it was structuraly unsound- it might have colapsed in another ten years or so.

k, "alright guys here's the blueprints for the building, see here and here" point out two unstable parts, "These here are unsafe for humans to be under, and as a advanced robot might think ahead far enough this will collapse not too long after construction is complete. Therefore my conclusion is that this robot believed that it was endangering humans, and therefore tore down the construction before it was finished, and then left before a fight could ensue, therefore endangering more humans. So The first law made it do this, we must now find out why. Unless someone else has some bright ideas?" Look around expectantly. If no one answers then "And find out if anyone else is on this case and who, I want them working for or with me by the end of the night folks now go!"

This takes about a half hour for your team to do their normal rounds. Then they reconvein- With a list of who else is on the case. A policeman named Watson, a robotics specialist named Dr. Hobbes, and yourselves.

k head over to the robotics guy

you arrive at Hobbes house. Gunna knock?

does he look like a hobbe?
knock, "Mr. Hobbes?"

"That's Dr. Hobbes. What can I do for you officer?"

"You sir, are the designer of the (list off the robot id) correct?" wait for answer. "They just took down a few buildings, my theory is tht they are, in their minds eye, defending humans that could possily e in danger from the buildings fault's. However they disobeyed human law. I'm afraid I'll need some of your time, and more than a few of your opinions and as much of your knowledge of these robotics as possible sir."

"Yes, I designed those robots. But there is no fault if the cause is as you describe. They are acting the best interests of the three laws. The fault would lie in the building."

so what is your guess as to what or where these robots will go or do next?

is anyone else suddenly reminded of 'The Incredibles'?

"I would estimate that they would seek out other builings that are unstable, and attempt to get as many humans out of them as possible, then destroy it. To predict where they would go next, you would have to have some way of knowing how they know which buildings are unstable."

Why Incredibles? Beside an out-of-control robot.

try to find the robot, and if possible, disable it and bring it back for intel, souns like incredibles to me.

alright john- time to find an unstable building. and yes, you could theoreticly make your own unstable building. or should I say make your own building unstable?

i say we make a building unstable, wiiiith civilians inside! that way the robots are sure to come.... if they find out..... and if they dont..... well ya never know, it might be fun...ny

you are in the police cal. THat would get you into some trouble.

fine, im going to call in to the local gov/building folks (take a note from hitch-hikers guide to the galaxy) and ask for a random building close to (insert street name) with lacking structural integrity. Then head there. I also wanna ask them to broadcast the info of it being strucutaly unsound over robotics network, while keeping it seem like its talking about the construction of said building...

If the police KNOW that a building is structuraly unsafe, they would have it taken down or repaired. Do you mean just less secure than most other buildings?

fine, do it your way, but C-4 would be so much more fun

My way? Hey, I just foil your attempts to do anything. I don't give you ideas.

fine, im gonna basically have a fast chopper wait around till im ready to go, while i sit and watch the tv till something comes through that the city is being blown up, unless my squad has a better idea up their collective assess

NPCs having ideas. That's funny.

A shopping mall has collapsed. Preliminary reports are that a robot was responsible, and that shots were fired.

No, robots are never armed with guns.

k, get there fast.

You see a collapsed shopping mall, and a few onlookers. There is a badly damaged robot lying on the ground, half supported by a woman in her mid twenties. The robot apears to have had it's head hit by repeatably by some kind of gun.

K, get there fast, and find out who's shooting the thing onto people...
also I want schematics on the building and why the robot was tearing the thing down (I also want it translated into player speak)

You are there. You're standing about twenty feet from the bot.

is it still on the woman?

Sort of- it's much the same posture adopted by wounded, slowly dying sidekicks everywhere. Head of the bot lying on her knees, her sitting knees forward, feet back.

Yeah, it's still there.

k im gonna move in with my team and move the thing off her, if it moves shoot its head a few times until it stops... then continue with moving it away from casual bystanders, start setting up generalized red tape (yellow police lines) and then if I can get the chip out of it and get it analyzed by a state oficial who will then take the data and ill have the plot line of running him down and killing him while falling in love with some random girl who really isnt worth anything... and that will be my characters generalized plot line I believe... if not then fill me in on the differences..

Slight problem- the hard drive has already been removed. As have all the more important parts of the robot's intellegence.

ooooo "get up a perimiter! I want this thing checked to see what exactly was taken, and take witness accounts down on what people saw... who took this things brain?! I want answers people and I want 'em now!" *move off to the side and light up a cigerette, im assuming that since im in a fairly stress high job i smoke to relieve it... figuring this is in character then..*

You take down some records of witness acounts- the general census is that the robot entered the building and told all humans to leave- the other bots aided it in make the humans leave. A early middle aged man arrived and had a brief battle with the bot. He and a mid twenty year old woman were the only ones to touch the robot.

"and what did they take? where did they go? did anyone recognize them? I want a sketch artist...." *yes i know its cliche and few people are caught that way, but its police procedure...*

YOu have the sketch artist, he can get some composites, but you'll have to detain these folks an hour or two to do it. Legal- you can be imprisioned for up to a day without charges- but it annoys people.

"i dont need to make people happy, just get the sketches of who took it and where. then they can leave" follow whatever directions i get from there

Directions? You get a face from this whole exercise. Not an address.

ask the people which direction the dude left in, and then do a cross reference of the people in that part of the city *using a triangle slab in a few mile radius* with the face i got .... hopefully

You get a huge part of the city, assuming a right angle triangle. Most of it is the slums and low buisnesses. (Bars, used carlots, pawn shops, you get the idea.)

k get a pair of cops (undercover if possible) to go into every bar in that sector and "ask for a guy fitting that description... money is no problem folks use whatcha need I want this guy soon!"

Right. You send the regular cops, plainclothes. What are you doing while they go out and search?

do a face search on our database *assuming we have one* otherwise try to decifer exactly why the robot was there, what it was doing, and why it nearly killed a human in the process...

One of the humans ( the male) is one John Talbit, a private detective by trade who's been arrested/detained a few times in the past, mostly for misdemeanors like drunkenness. A few traffic violations.

The other shows up as Felica Sarant, a roboticist who worked for the big robotics design company in town when it was just starting up forty years ago. No lawbreaks, so normally she wouldn't be in the database, but the higher ups in the robotics company are all fingerprinted and IDed for security reasons.

k whichever is closest im heading to their house with 3 cops as backup, send another four person team after the other... have them arrested and brought back to base (i can arrest anyone i want without reason for up to 24 hours)

You are correct- after 24 hours, you have to let them go. You do need a cause for suspicion though, and there are still miranda rights, so no KGB tactics.

Houses- the two live seperatly. In fact, there isn't a listed address for Ms. Sarent. Mr. Talbit on the otherhand, you do have an address. You send four cops to Mr. Talbits house, with orders to bring him in. (Resisting arrest IS a crime, so you can detain someone extra for that if you can make the charge stick.)

k im going with them and have 4 others check for the whereabouts of the lady. ill put stealing property (government, public, or private whichever the robots are) as the charge and bring him back to headquarters