A soft hum fills the air as the computers screen continues trying to initialize it's program, the interference of the radioactive energy interrupting the flow of power severely hampering the process...
Several months pass...
Initializing... Error... Initializiing... Error
The poor monitor had already had enough, the blooming effect of being turned on and off repeatedly wore it out, the technology behind it while sophisticated was only ever built as an interface and therefore costs were cut. Regardless with no human requiring interaction the computer and its terminal was largely useless anyway.
Several more months pass and whatever happened had not yet knocked power out however intermittent surges start to show signs of slowing down, the downside was that while there was longer time between surges, the surges themselves lasted longer causing system instabilities.
Maintenance subroutine activated... troubleshooting... Error.. Troubleshooting... Error... Malfunction identified... Error..
While the program was still attempting to initialize, the computer, like any other was running a program in the background that was installed to monitor and isolate system bugs. There were few and far between and this system boasted the automation of self correction within its set parameters.
Another month passes and the system slowly but surely creeps along, determined to solve the root of the problem. The surges growing longer between phases yet again.
System backup intiated... Error... Error.. Error. Backup complete... Swapping to reserve power... Estimated power at 99%
Protocol dictated that before any change on the system it must be backed up in the event of catastrophic failure. The hum grows louder for a moment before the system shuts down, more interference, it takes a few cycles but eventually the system stores its data on a seperate partition. In order for the next part to work it could not have interruptions so it quickly built a program that started the reserve power system to kick in during the interruptions. It estimated with intermittent interruptions the power supply could last anywhere between 4 to 6 months if it was only used during interruptions.
Program intializing... Project start: YYYY/DD/MMM 2117/12/20 -- MCV booting... Construction commencing.
With the power issues out of the way the main program immeadiatly started its work. Tiny, dust like particles quickly pour out of the roof of the machine reminiscent of a nanite these particular robots were a bit bigger and thus dubbed "Micro Construction Vehicle" the science to build and sustain nanites was simply not within reach yet and the best they could come up with were small robots roughly the size of a fingernail, they were built with octopus like tendrils that allowed them to scurry about or connect together with one another to move heavier objects. They alligned themselves much like ants and began constructing the chassis for the robot. Occasionally the robots would pause, very briefly as the power kept swapping from main to auxillery power allowing it to bypass the constant interruptions thus completed more work in these several hours than it had in the last few months.
Running system diagnostics... System diagnostics complete... Verifying operating parameters... Three Laws verified.
Once the system started construction, the diagnostic program began looking for flaws in the operating procedures in the event it needed to restore to its partition. The operating system was rather simple and operated off the basic principles that most ethical systems propose: "Preserve human life where able, obey authorized orders and sustain self" this was tweaked from the original three law system that dictates you cannot harm a human, as in some cases it may be required to preserve other life and that it only obeys orders from the authorized people, otherwise it might be turned against the military and last but not least was to protect and maintain itself by utilizing materials nearby. A fully autonomous robot that could repair itself would be an unprecedented feat of technology, fixing oneself wasn't particularily difficult but building a drive to seek out materials identify and reconstruct itself was particularily impressive if not somewhat alarming, especially if something went wrong.. hence the project's "Secret" status.
Conflict found... Reason: Law Three 'Sustain self'... Insufficient energy: Estimated depletion: 148 Days 17 Hours 15 minutes 12 seconds... Troubleshooting... Seeking alternative energy source.. Source found... Radioactive energy M4N4 found.. Building conversion map.. Failure.. Recalculating.. Failure.. Recalculating.. Energy level 98.9%
The background program continued to run, trying to find a way to collect, store and utilize the radioactive energy but since the calculations required were extensive and the bulk of the processing power was currently being used to manually control hundreds of thousands of MCV's it was making little progress.
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Chassis completed... Conversion map complete.. Chassis modification required.. Blueprints amended.. Comencing modification... Constructing Cabon nanotubes... Building battery... Constructing gold nano-wire... Commence testing.. Energy level at 97.8%
The chassis on the table thrummed for a moment before exploding in a shower of metal, various powders that began to corrode the nearby surfaces, however unceasingly those tiny MCV's calmly regathered the material, recycled everything they could and proceeded to the next test.
Another month would pass.
Trial and error protocol engaged. Commencing test 1.. Failure... Commencing test 832... Success.. Energy level at 80%
this was a time consuming venture, the first priority was to find a way to collect and store the radiactive energy. This part was actually rather easy as the carbon nanotubes packed with gold would push high density energy into the cells however the lithium storage agent wasn't able to contain the power and it was impossible to consume the energy fast enough without overheating and exploding. A simple capacitor system was put into place however narrowing down the ratio of containable energy flow took the first month, by the time it finished it had produced a very low efficiency collection and storage device but enough to sustain low level operations and breif bursts of high-level work when required.
Program reinitialized... Constructing Chassis... MCVs booting... Commencing... Energy level dropping below nominal values.. Energy level at 59.3%.. Recalculating... Estimated depletion: 89 Days, 20 Hours, 10 Minutes, 42 seconds
The computer detected yet another invisible surge, power shut down longer then anticipated causing significant drain to energy resources while operating multiple trial and error programs. With the activation of the MCVs the construction of the chassis was going to drain it even more. The modifications made were in anticipation to power the chassis unit and not the main computer, this caused the program to recalculate the immeadiate needs to complete its program.
Initial testing absorbed a significant amount of materials, despite the stockpile in place and the MCV's ability to recycle a lot of it there was still plenty of waste. However the computer had more then enough to finish this project, the effects of the radiation were causing strange instabilities in the system, corrupting code in such a fashion that all that was left of the system was an almost human like need to finish, the computer ruthelessly analyzing the neccessary parts and even began to canibalize itself for some components.
Estimated time to completion: 21 Hours, 42 minutes, 12 seconds... Torso complete.. Installing MCV depot... BIT engaged... BIT pass... 18 Hours, 14 minutes, 1 second remaining... Constructing limbs... Boresighting... BIT engaged... Energy Level: 23%... Estimated time remaining: 32 Days, 7 Hours, 59 minutes, 55 seconds
Perhaps the greatest work of human ingenuity was slowly being constructed on the table while the remaining power was slowly but surely dwindling, although it seemed like a race the computer had already completed the computation to know exactly what was required to finish the task. A cold calculated logic that ensured zero waste of efficiency, its own systems shutting down as it no longer required them even some of the MCVs were shutting down since it was a waste of energy to move it. Built in tests were commenced as the chassis and limbs were constructed, the body twitching its newly formed fingers, limbs and equipped apparatuses.
Construction complete.. Analog functions within tolerance.. Engaging OS installation... Error.. Surge detected.. Installing Three Laws... Error... Three Laws Verified.. Error... Testing power levels... Error... Power level: Low... Error... Charging... Error.. Initializing System... Error... System fault detected... Error.. Isolating... Error.. Fault Code: 1.. Error.. Three Laws comprimised.. Error..Terminate system... Error.. Power lev(*$: !@#!.. Err..
A cable descended from the large computer and connected to the center chassis establishing a connection with the remote unit and began to install the operating system, during this installation another surge hit the computer and there was an error for transfor flow, all three laws were properly installed and verified and several lights blossomed within the chamber as the chassis was given its initial charge, each system turned on tested itself and turned off and there was a low hum as scanners were turned on and off, spectrum analysis equipment and finally the operating system conducted its own self assessment looking for corrupted code or instabilities... However a problem persisted during intialization. The priority system was damaged, this effectivly set the three laws at the same level of priority, meaning the robot would pause and be stuck trying to run the same code over and over.
To preserve system integrity the same cable was supposed to fire a surge of electricity or dump the operating system however the system did not possess the foresight a human might have and therefore it did not save any energy reserves, in fact the moment finished initializing the remote unit it already began shutting down. A low groan echoed from the system as systems began shutting down from failure instead of stowing like they were supposed to, although the sound itself was almost reminisecent of a human as if their greatest work somehow wasn't satisfactory.
The room was finally silent for a moment.. As if acknowleding the hard work of the machine that finally shut down before a crackle of electricity was heard and the cable connected to the chassis, no longer powered lost its anchoring as the system started, there was a soft whirring and a low hum before even the hum died down and silence returned.
System initialized... Three Laws Verified.. Priority one.. Preserve human life, Obey authorized commands and sustain self.. Priority two.. Error... Priority three... Error.. Analog systems: Excellent... Operating system: Excellent... Power level: Low.. Ambient energy collection: Low.. Establishing charge cycle: Unit requires 7 hours to charge.. Charging..