"New drone available. Would you like to enter the Vessel Drone?"
Looking up from the notification to the newly fabricated ‘vessel drone’, I found that the drone in front of me looked to be a large mech suit and was easily several feet tall with extensive armor plating and protective equipment. Inspecting the vessel drone which was standing imperiously and unmoving, I could see that it was incredibly robust with multiple layers or protective plating and thick looking hydraulics which ran through each of the robot’s limbs. Speaking of which, standing firm underneath the torso of the construct were a pair of thick and sturdy looking legs which I could observe seemed to have multiple redundant systems to ensure that they would never falter under anything but the most dire situations. On the sides of the vessel drone were short but robust looking arms which looked to be able to take a significant beating without succumbing to the forces applied to it.
As I continued to inspect the components of the beast of a robot, a floating description appeared close to my face and after quickly looking it over I found that it was detailing the specifications of the construct which stood in front of me. Apparently the vessel drone is a heavily modifiable drone which in order to properly function would need to be activally piloted by the AI in control of it meaning that unless the AI administrator in control of the vessel drone could split their conscience they would only be able to pilot 1 vessel at a time. According to the description, the general purpose of the vessel drone is to facilitate the AI administrators ability to interact with their charges and environment manually as well as venture out of their zone of control. As such they were equipped with a speaker in order to allow the AI to directly communicate to those not connected to the AI’s Additionally this vessel drone in particular was an industrially designed one which is specifically built to be as sturdy and robust as possible in order to face the harsh dangers that working in a factory details. Yeah, I would know. If I was built like this vessel drone, I doubt that I would have been killed by that damned ceiling light.
Reading further into the description I found that asides from durability, the industrial vessel drone was unfortunately not equipped to do very much else other than simple physical feats like construction and hauling. Well, I guess it could be worse. Being an absolute tank has its advantages when dealing with things like angry robots trying to get revenge. With that thought, I glanced back to the line of robots that had been taken as prisoners before returning my attention to the vessel drone. Now do I just slip into it like when I watch things from inside my drones or do I-. As I poked the vessel drone with my index finger, I proceeded to be quickly engulfed by the vessel drone and promptly bathed in darkness. Then, I opened my eyes to look down upon my metalic hands and robotic legs. Oh yes! Finally, I can move around rather than just floating! Ahh, oh how much I’ve missed having a body.
Taking a few moments to readjust myself to the feeling of actually being able to move my arms and legs again before deciding that I might as well use my newfound speaking abilities to begin interrogating the prisoners. Walking over to the line of prisoners, I could see that many of them seemed to be surprised by my vessel's bulk and more were evidently afraid of my avatar which I suppose I could not fault them for given that the vessel drone was rather intimidating. Looking at the prisoners, I found that many were avoiding eye contact, minus Red who seemed to be attempting to bore a hole in my forehead with their glare, as if they thought that if they met my gaze I would punish them or something outrageous. I would not act like my former bosses and so I simply observed them passively. Now that I was standing before them and not actively attempting to battle each other, I was able to see that they seemed to have split themselves up into four distinct groups based on their colored markings which I presume denoted their jobs or something.
There were the reds with Red being the only one making up that group, there were the greens of which there was 2 who seemed to be cowering slightly, there were three yellow robots and whom I remembered were the ones chattering about what I was going to do with them earlier, and lastly there was one blue robot who sat alone and seemed to be looking around for someone. Deciding that since they had so neatly grouped themselves, I decided to interrogate them in batches and so I quickly pointed to each of the three yellow robots first and said “You three, come with me.” The three robots in question nervously looked at each other before getting up and followed me down the stairs to one of the rooms in the hallway near my core at the behest of one of my ants who herded them down and took up position behind them. Eventually reaching the bottom of the stairs, I directed them inside of one of the half dozen rooms lining the sides of the hallway before following them in and ordering my ant to guard the door incase they try and overpower me in order to escape, even if I doubted that they would be capable of that.
The room that I had chosen thankfully had a decently sized table and a few dozen chairs laying around and so we quickly took up positions around the table with the three of them grouped up on one side and me on the other. Looking at the group of yellow robots who were looking distinctly nervous as they started to fidget and avoid eye contact, I cleared my throat before speaking up. “Alright, I suppose some introductions are in order. My name is James, what is yours?” The three robots quickly began looking between each other before who I guessed was the eldest one of them given the slight rust on their hull spoke up. “My self given designation is Patcher, and these two are Plate and Screw respectively.” Nodding to myself while quickly notting that down in my head if for nothing else than building up a rapport by using their names. “Alright, I just want to clear some things up. While I am not particularly vengeful and thus will not be killing you guys like I suspect you’ve been thinking,” Screw quickly glanced to Plate, “However, I am still rather annoyed by your guy’s attempt to destroy my drones and presumably capture GW-3N who is now a ward of mine, at least for now.”
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
The three robots in question looked between each other awkwardly before Patcher asked “Will you let us go if we answer your questions?” I paused for a moment, thinking the question over. Given that they seemed to be less than inclined to favor red who I think is the main reason for them barging in here, I did not really have much reason to keep them locked up other than a potential bargaining chip along with red for whomever that chieftain fellow that they were talking about is. Eventually I simply responded with a courteous “I’ll consider it” which Patcher seemed to decide was about as good as they were going to get as they prompted me to ask away with a gesture of their hand. “Alright, first up, what is with the different colored markings? You guys seemed to be splitting up based on your colors and I would personally like to know why, if for nothing else than for the sake of knowing.”
Patcher seemed to be rather surprised by the question, I guess they were not expecting something of that nature but regardless they answered by stating that each colored marking denoted their assigned occupation. These markings went as follows, red markings means fighters and warriors, blues were maintainers, yellows were assigned to construction and refinement, greens were the designated scavengers, and lastly purple denoted that they were part of the leading caste in charge of making decisions in their ‘tribe’. As such, robots of the same color stuck around each other more often since they were coworkers and thus knew each other. Of course this is not always the case since the robots could be shifted into different jobs although that rarely happens. As I listened I nodded along, taking in the information as possibly helpful at a later date before asking my second question.
“Alright, so how many people make up your little village in that tower?” This seemed to make Patcher hesitate slightly as they considered whether it would be a bad idea to tell the big scary person currently holding them captive how many people make up their community. “You know what, nevermind. I’m not in the business of forcing information out of you guys, just tell me why you guys signed up for this expedition into my territory.” Plus I could just ask GW-3N if I really need to know what I’m going up against. Patcher and their two buddies visibly relaxed upon my decision to not press for answers and quickly rattled off how they had been told that there was a cache of tools and equipment over here by Red and how all they would need to do is chase off a few spiders in the area. Apparently they knew what Red had been doing as of recently regarding GW-3N however the promise of having free reign of the equipment was a bit too much of an incentive for the three to give up.
Well, I guess that confirms my guess that Red is the mastermind of this operation. Nodding in understanding, I quickly ran through my head for any more pressing questions before eventually deciding that none came to mind immediately so I said that I had no more questions and waited here while I brought the rest of the robots down here. With that, I quickly left the room and ordered my ant waiting by the door to continue standing guard before I walked up the stairs towards the rest of the robot prisoners. Upon reaching the top of the stairs and to the line of remaining prisoners, I saw that GW-3N had come down from wherever they had been hiding to look at the captured string of robots. They seemed surprised as they spotted me lumbering up the stairs, however before they asked who I was, I simply waved my hand and told them that we would have some proper introductions in a little bit before gesturing to the rest of the robots to get up and follow me down the stairs, to which they complied with some hesitancy.
Quickly making our way downstairs, I sent most of the robots into the same room as the three yellow robots, making sure to assign a few spiders along with the ant already there to guard the door. However, I decided to separate Red from the rest due to their somewhat more important status by virtue of being the ‘chieftains’’ son, however that is supposed to work. With that all taken care of, I made my way up the stairs once again before finding GW-3N watching as my spiders worked on patching up the injuries which my drones had sustained during the fight. “Umm, hello. I don’t believe we’ve had a proper introduction quite yet. My name is James and I am-” GW-3N cut me off as they said “You’re an AI right? I’ve read all about you people, able to control swaths of drones and order them in-person from their vessel or from the safety of their core. Never thought I would ever be able to see, let alone meet, one of you!” I stood stunned for a few moments as my mind realized what their words meant before snapping out of it and simply nodding my head in acknowledgement.
If they’ve heard of AI’s then there might be more people like me out there! At the very least I won’t be the only one who can do the stuff I can. I’m not sure if I should be excited or concerned. “Well, umm, I’ve already caught your name from some conversations that I’ve been hearing. Nice to meet you properly I suppose, tell me if you need anything and I’ll see what I can do.” GW-3N nodded understandingly although said nothing, simply inspecting my form and presumably taking in the fact that they were under the care of an entity, presumably quite rare, that they have been reading quite a lot about. “Hey, could you do me a favor and make sure that none of those robots currently being held down stairs try to escape while I’m gone.” GW-3N quickly nodded in affirmation before walking off towards the stairwell, presumably to do just that. Good, because now I have to go and have a nice and civil chat with that Chieftain of theirs.