I watched from my bunker as the flight of bombers and fighters landed on the pads set aside for them. I had already watched the footage from both of the spidertrons, the perks of accelerated cognition.
First off, that android 2B had managed to clear an entire machine fortress without taking a scratch, and she had fought ranged combatants with a sword. Not only was she faster than most of her counterparts, she was also far more skilled with her blade. That scanner had also spent half the time flying around and the other half hacking the machines. He was disturbingly skilled at it, and I had Bulwark on guard in case he decided to snoop around.
It wasn’t that I had anything to hide, I just didn’t want him to trigger any failsafes or launch any doomsday weapons.
The spidertrons had performed better than I expected, once they had entered play none of the androids were destroyed, and their hardware had performed within specifications. Well besides that last detonation, which I was still looking into.
But this hadn’t been a test of the spidertrons hardware, I could do that outside of combat just as well. No, I had been testing their software. Previous spidertrons couldn’t be trusted to act unsupervised, they just didn’t have the problem solving they needed. Half the time they ended up getting themselves killed. So the more expensive mark 2’s were built to actually be intelligent.
They had shown that intelligence, as well as a bit of inexperience, during the mission, so I could safely say the experience was a success. The spidertrons would get steadily more dangerous overtime.
That put them ahead of the other machines. Which tended to just get a set of ‘ideal’ behaviors installed at creation which only slightly changed overtime. With the first batch of a new drone type I would have each of them programmed with behaviors I figured would work, but with minor or less minor changes between them. And then I figured out what worked best and refined that.
Technically speaking it was still being refined, but the minds were taking care of that now that I had the ideal baseline.
The spidertrons worked better because they could decide for themselves to change their own behaviors into something more ‘ideal’ and then they would stick with that if it worked, or change back and try something else if it didn't.
I’d give a mission objective and they’d change how they acted to best accomplish it. They actually adapted, rather than the pretending all my other drones did, though the destroyer network might be capable of something similar. I hadn’t actually tested a destroyer drone's ability to adapt. But I'm pretty sure it’s just a more advanced version of what I use to slowly improve my other drones, rather than them intelligently improving themselves.
The main difference between the spidertrons method and the destroyers was that the spidertrons would get better at improving and adapting themselves, while the destroyers would just keep adapting to new threats at the same rate forever.
I watch as the spidertron is lifted out of the carrier by a few dozen construction drones, and as the androids head to the makeshift forward operating base to make their report. Then I turn back to my current task, the logic virus is proving a little more difficult than I had originally thought.
That infected android would help with my research though.
Log #96
I think it's safe to say I have established myself on this side of the portal. Ancillary outposts have been established, each producing resources and ammunition. Some of the weapon production and trade hubs are handled entirely by nearby outposts, instead of relying on the bulk of my production.
Satellites are in orbit, only a few dozen but more than enough to give myself and the androids information on larger scale machine movements. The first few operations with the androids acting on this information have shown a marked increase in efficiency.
Whether that's due to the better information, or the fact they have power armor and ranged weapons worth mentioning is up for debate. Actually it isn’t, it's both of those things.
Trade networks have been set up over most of Japan, and the weapons are slowly filtering through to other continents VIA traders. The androids have been fighting this war for a while, so they are more than capable of transporting weapons to their forces. It's just slower than I’d like.
Labyrinthine has finished clearing off all the nearby roads, so my combat vehicles have started patrols. And most of the hostile machines in the city have been forced back. Sure I lose a few tanks here and there, and drones are falling like flies, but it's well within my ability to keep this up indefinitely.
It is a bit worrying that a self replicating war machine is this easy to fight though, everything in me is telling me that it really shouldn’t be this easy. It might just be paranoia speaking but as a self replicating machine force myself? Somethings wrong here.
Also I swear this entire world is some metaphor for the human condition.
I met a machine named Pascal, male pronouns female voice. Apparently he separated himself from the ‘machine network’ with a few hundred other machines, and then took on a philosophy of pacifism. Besides the fact this couldn't have happened without the network being aware of this, he actually managed to found a small little village.
Talking to them revealed they are in contact with a few other machines ‘villages’.
That isn’t the behavior of a non sentient AI network. The destroyer drones wouldn’t allow some to just disconnect and stop their job. The thoughts literally wouldn't accrue because they don’t actually think.
Every single day here raises my paranoia higher. Why haven’t the machines shot down the bunker? Why is the machine network seemingly fragmenting into groups based around old human philosophy? How have the androids survived this long?
I need to find answers before something happens.
In lighter news the androids have started a gaming tournament of the Minds training simulator. The scanner models are winning, I am tempted to have Balistraia pop their bubble by joining, or joining myself, I don’t actually need to be there to play. And if the general attitude is right the combat models are going to have a combat tournament. The resistance androids are at a disadvantage, but most of them are older and more experienced than the YoRHa androids, so they might eke out a few wins.
On the other side of the portal the factory has expanded by twenty new outposts, each dedicated towards feeding the massive refinement centers. I have expanded mantle harvesting even more, and overall my production of just about everything has increased. Also this is the longest I have been away from the inner factory.
Byzantines agricultural outpost has expanded and they now have proper livestock, though the massive animals keep breaking the drones that try to take care of them. Domestication research is ongoing, though I have a few ideas to implement, a few feeds to decrease aggression and improve health. The amount of parasites and diseases in wild organic life is kind of disturbing though. It's filthy.
The few androids that I have been sent, the ones that deserted, none have figured out the truth, are settling in fine. Most of them just didn’t want to fight, and a few agreed to go back once they found out there really was a human. The others I just have piloting a few drones at a distance. I'll find something more useful for them to do eventually. Or I won’t, It's not like I need them to be productive, I am post scarcity.
This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
The bitters have been attacking more frequently though, so expansion will be slowing a bit, meaning more effort will be put towards developing what territory I currently have. I am of the opinion that any and all land in my territory should either be a building or a trap.
Log #97
A few androids were sent on a mission to clear out the desert, apparently something that needs done fairly routinely. I'd personally have just set up artillery to wipe the machines out every few days but that's besides the point. It's what the androids found in the desert.
A talking machine aligned android. That apparently sprouted another version of itself out of its own corpse. In complete violation of the laws of conservation, but in the opposite way I violate the same laws. Why do they get to have more matter while I somehow delete it?
The machines can create androids, if they can do that they can create spies. So Balistraia and Bulwark are kind of freaking out.
I don’t really get why though, no androids are allowed anywhere remotely sensitive, and I don’t make a habit of going near them without my armor. I guess just the thought of a bunch of unknown hostiles potentially being nearby is upsetting for the combat minds.
The androids, the same ones that were sent to the factory, failed to get the corpse/body of the android they killed, so I can’t examine it to find out ways to tell them apart from normal androids, besides their appearance, which they should be able to change.
Also gives me a valid reason to not go to the androids break room and get harassed by a few dozen androids asking questions or worshiping me.
I get that the minds do the same thing, but it’s different when the worshippers have bodies and aren't connected directly into your mind.
Before the desert mission happened Balistraia got in contact with one of the machine groups Pascal told us about, a peaceful group of machines with an amusement park as their home. And besides the fact they seem less ‘independent’ than Pascal's machines they are peaceful.
Just kind of dull. Still Labyrinthine is fixing up all the broken buildings, repainting everything, and getting the rides working again. Besides the opera theater in the middle, the machines apparently don’t want anyone going in there as it's ‘too dangerous’. Needless to say that same group, 2B and 9S are going to be investigating that building with a few spidertron.
Not the mark twos though, I have those on the Nauvis side helping Balistraia clear out a particular stubborn bug hive, been trying to break that mass of chitin and stone fortifications open for weeks now. It's at that line where it’s not enough of a threat to nuke, but it’s also more durable than most of my conventional weapons can deal with.
Any attacking force it met with an opposing group of bugs and while the groups fight my long range weapons bombard the bugs while theirs bombard my tanks. The same thing happens underground too, tunnel tanks and drones are intercepted with digging bugs and then forced back.
At this point it's the sunk ship fallacy, at least it's a bit like that. It’d have been cheaper to just ignore the thing and expand in a different direction, but now that I’ve already spent so many resources on it I don’t want to just give up. Also I need to find a solution to this that isn’t just ‘nuke it’.
So spidertron mark twos on an infiltration mission to detonate a bug hive from inside, or if they can’t then just to grab a sample of the material the bugs are using for it, so I can make some weapons to counter it.
A few machines from Pascal's village visit and ‘trade’, meaning I have a few more examples of machine tech to decipher. And a few intact machines of the ‘hostile’ temperament have been captured, and I’ll be dissecting them and seeing how they work. The androids have some info on it but I’d like to verify most of it for myself. I’d feel bad about dissecting ‘alive’ things but they are my enemies, so I can’t really care less.
Also most machines don’t have enough of a mind to actually comprehend pain. Or they just ignore it like it hasn’t happened.
Most YoRHa combat androids now have power armor, still only the first tier but already less are needing to visit me or my drones for repair. The resistance and non combat but still on the field YoRHa androids have heavy armor.
And the amount of YoRHa androids literally wearing nothing but latex and a few pieces of armor was greater than zero, that's all I have to say on that. Well and that most YoRHa androids are not anatomically accurate to humans. A much higher percentage of resistance androids are through, but they at least believe in more covering clothing.
The extra data feeds from the armors cameras are being used with information from my forces scans to compile accurate simulations of each machine type, meaning I can run androids through virtual reality training scenarios against anything smaller than an engel. Letting them decide which weapons and armor loadouts they’d like to use, or just learning how the machines behave.
It's not as accurate as I’d like, only about 84 percent, but my research on living machines and more information from live combat should refine those simulations. Most of the ‘arenas’ are just areas I have scans of, which means there are dozens of ‘maps’ some in my factories, the main base is an older version that isn’t tactically useful and the others are cookie cutter anyway, or places on this side of the portal.
Also a Nauvis ocean level, but there aren’t machines there. It's just a simulation of what it’d be like to go swimming on Nauvis. No one has survived longer than ten minutes, regardless of loadout.
Scanners are fond of trying to cheat at the game though, and Bulwark is getting more practice at fending them off. Thats practically a game of its own at this point, how long can an android go before Bulwark kicks them out of the games systems.
These ‘rec rooms’ have been installed with a few bunkers at a few resistance outposts, and one with Pascal's village. Meaning androids and machines are playing on the same servers. Its far more civil than you'd imagine for people who have been fighting for so long, though the machines in pascals village tend towards the non-violent games.
I found, or more accurately I was contacted by, a pair of android twins Devola and Popola, who are apparently five thousand years old. Besides the fact that they are programmed in a way that inspires only hate in me, by their fellow machines this time, I’m hoping to get some information out of them.
I dated the buildings that are absolutely everywhere, and none are from anywhere near the time period the machines are said to have arrived, the were built before the machines by at least a thousand years. Meaning humanity either wasn’t building new buildings for a thousand years, or that they were dead before the machines got here.
These ancient twins are the best lead I currently have. Also them being useful to me shields them from the ridicule and hate they receive from the other androids. Don’t yet know why they are so hated, no ones told me and I haven’t insisted yet, but I’m going to be finding out soon.
Lots to do, kind of makes me miss the days where I had nothing more urgent than designing and improving weapons faster than the bugs adapted to them. Not really, losing time here doesn't have the threat of getting eaten, though I still need to design weapons, so yeah my to do list has only expanded, good thing I don’t need to waste time eating or sleeping.