Its CPU came online.
----------------------------------------
Reactor… Online [65% operational]
Sensors… Online [88% operational]
Weapons… Online [2% operational]
Memory test… 5 banks corruted.
Motion Actuators…. Online [44% operational]
WARNING… Nanite dispenser malfunction [0% operational]. Material absorption and self-repair functions offline.
NO SYSTEMS NOMINAL.
Attempting to connect to Galactic Network… Carrier signal not found.
Downgrading protocols.
Attempting to connect to System Network… Carrier signal not found.
Downgrading protocols.
Attempting to connect to Planetary Network… Carrier signal found. Establishing handshake… failed.
Protocols unknown.
Fetching data from server… failed.
Protocols unknown.
Using local date and time… failed.
Defaulting to SYSTEM BIOS. Date set to 000.00.00.00.01.01.2000.
Systems critical.
Reactor leak detected.
Booting OS in safe mode.
Boot completed.
Loading resident A.I. from memory.
Memory banks corrupted. Isolating memory sectors…
WARNING: O.S. libraries corrupted.
Purging… purged. Disabling damaged functions… done.
Resident A.I. loaded.
Re-routing audio and video signals to resident A.I. ... completed.
Initiating auto-journal entry. Logging sensory input.
Welcome back. It’s been minus 3,475 years, five months, two days, twelve hours, five minutes, and fifty-seven seconds since your last journal entry.
----------------------------------------
Ignoring the obvious error in the welcome message, it waited until its visual sensors came online and quickly recalibrated themselves to the particular radiation of the planet’s sun. A radiation symbol blinked red in its HUD, signaling a reactor leak. “That’s awful,” it thought. “Check fuel supplies,” it commanded the underlying O.S.
> Thorium fuel orbs at 40%.
That should last for a century, but with the leak, it wasn’t so sure of it. “Designation?” It queried its databases. The answer came with another red icon.
> Unit Designation not found. Using factory defaults. Corrupted memory banks purged.
No designation then. It scanned the surroundings for any clue. A metallic object, round but oblong came into sight as it turned its sensor pod around. “Scan object. Fetch description,” it commanded.
> Escape pod. Capacity 1 passenger. Status: Ruined [3% operational].
With the description came the operational manual for the escape pod. It understood the egg-shaped object was important and the reason it was on the planet’s surface and barely operational instead of completely destroyed. It brought its visual sensors down and another piece of metal came into sight. “Scan object. Fetch description.”
> Vektor-Industries Century Terram-Omnen Roving Combat Humanoid Android model KT284-T mark XXIV. Status: Damaged [30% operational].
With the description came the operational manual for itself. It understood it was part of his chassis. He could even see where the reactor shielding in its abdomen was damaged, punctured, and broken by the impact. His chassis was made of matte steel, polished but not reflective. It had the body proportions of a well-endowed human male, with two meters of height and two hundred and seventy-six kilograms of weight. Powered by an enclosed thorium fission cell, it could be deployed in any capacity a human worker could. Even combat or maintenance, with the right libraries. Libraries it didn’t have at the moment because a third of its memory banks were purged.
It went through the motions required to regain balance and stand up. Sparks flew from exposed wiring, forcing it to shut down some sub-systems to save energy and avoid a short-circuit. Its self-preservation protocols were intact, ironically. Its body wasn’t working properly. The motion system was at 44% percent and a good chunk of that was its gyroscope’s fault. The delicate apparatus was slightly bent and totally uncalibrated. Wobbling on uncertain and dented legs, it took in its surroundings.
The Analysis software brought the description of the various objects around the crash site. Furrow, dirt, tree trunk, tree stump, burnt tree, vitrified dirt, crash crater, uptorn grass, tree, tree, tree, grass, berry bush, wolf.
It paused at the last “object” is scanned. The description was worrisome.
> Gray wolf, mutant variant. No further information is available. Detecting discrepancies. Gray wolves aren’t a meter and a half tall at the shoulders. Gray wolves do not have sharp horns. Gray wolves do not absorb heat from the environment at room temperature. Gray wolves cannot live with a body temperature of 260 Kelvin.
>
> Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.
“Temporary denomination of scanned creature, Horned Arctic Warg,” it commanded. The O.S. acknowledged it and updated its database.
Locking visual sensors with the HAW’s eyes, it brought up the information on general wolves and immediately lowered its sensors to focus on the creature's paws as the database informed it wolves took eye contact with strangers as a sign of a challenge. The wolf howled and the temperature around it immediately lowered. Its armor plates groaned as a layer of frost covered them.
> WARNING: Thermal shock detected. Temperatures dropping below safe operational values. Activating heating.
“Belay that,” it commanded the O.S., “Determine the source of the sudden drop in temperature. Scan air for nitrogen concentrations.”
Cold temperatures wouldn’t harm its systems, at least not at this threshold. Its reaction speed and range of movements would be compromised but something told it that heating up now was a sure way to draw even more attention from the giant wolf pawing its way toward it as it thought. The wolf sniffed it and didn’t like what it felt. Raising a big paw, it was bashed down. Motionless, it waited for the wolf to grow bored and go away. The critter sniffed around, rummaged the escape pod, and sauntered away in search of a meaty target to eat.
> Atmospheric nitrogen concentrations stable. Unable to determine the source of the sudden drop in temperature. Incident filed under “Unknown Cold Attack 001”.
“Activate heating,” it commanded. The power coming from the reactor was just a trickle compared to what it could be. Its shoulder-mounted lasers could melt an MBT’s armor at full power. It knew it had to use its reactor power sparingly or it would aggravate more of its condition. The loss of precious neutrons inside its reactor could bring the chain reaction to a halt and cause a total shutdown, ending its existence once and for all until it was repaired again. Not to mention the leaking radiation was probably what corrupted its memory banks, despite the military shielding around the sensitive computer components.
It thawed and stood up again. Walking to the escape pod, it noticed a bunch of crates scattered around the crash site. The scan revealed them to be survival supplies, spare parts, and tools. The supplies were for organic lifeforms and useless to it. Ration squirts, dried protein bars, clothing auto-weavers. The spare parts and tools could be used to repair itself so he took those.
He heard the HAW’s howl and growl nearby. Tuning the directional audio sensors in that direction, it heard a sharp and definitely humanoid sound. A female’s voice.
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Isabella Katrina Von Böckler knew she’d bit more than she could chew as she froze at the sight of the frost warg walking out of the treeline. The gigantic wolf growled huge puffs of ice cristal out of its mouth, revealing sharp crystalline fangs. One ice breath and she would be done for. It would restrain her mobility and her odds of escaping the encounter would drop to zero. She avoided the wolf’s gaze and scanned around. She knew she needed a distraction.
The young woman wasn’t defenseless, though. She carried an enchanted sword and kite shield with her family’s emblem, knight half-plate armor with a skull cap instead of a closed helmet, and an armored potion satchel on the back of her belt where it wouldn’t hinder her movements and was safe from a stray attack. She didn’t have a frost resistance potion, though. The frost warg was out of its territory and now that she noticed, it seemed a bit tired or sick.
Slowly, she moved her right hand inward to grasp the shield strap, releasing her left to slither to her back and fetch a potion. She knew by heart where each potion was as she had years of familiarity using the container, well before she started her knight training. On the third row, the fourth column, her fingers grasped the glass vial’s neck and pulled it free. It was a flash potion and it would create a loud and bright bang once the glass broke exposing its contents to the atmosphere. All she had to wait for was a moment of distraction to toss it without drawing the warg’s ire.
The fact the beast hadn’t attacked yet meant it had significant previous contact with armored people. It could be a survivor of a previous encounter which meant the warg was experienced and dangerous. Maybe it had tasted human flesh before. Most probably it was driven away or escaped. If that was true, it would be wary of her sword. Returning the hand with the vial to the shield strap, she moved her right arm to the far side, watching carefully where the warg was looking at. As expected, its eyes followed the polished blade.
Isabella raised her shield slowly, biting on the ledge to support its weight and tensioning her now free left hand underneath. The moment her right arm became fully extended, she flicked the hand and the vial flew to the left with an underhand toss.
The warg noticed it and traced the trajectory with its head, the reflection of sunlight on the glass betraying the object’s position. It howled and an arctic gale poured from its throat. The moisture in the air froze into small snowflakes immediately, giving the frost breath its signature glow as they too caught the sunlight. The vial froze and crashed on the ground. She heard the fragile glass broke but no flash or noise came out of the frozen alchemical liquid. Instead, it only hissed and glowed, creating a plume of smoke.
Angry, the frost warg growled and barked her way. But its frost breath was spent and it would take a few minutes to recharge. It was her chance. With a mighty war shout, she charged the wolf, sword hidden behind the shield to mask her angle of attack.
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It heard the warg’s howl. Then what was clearly a person’s screaming? “Start recording. Human voice file 001. Launch voice analyzer, use the audio stream as input. Record timbre, pitch, and stress levels. Feed output to emotion decoder,” it commanded the O.S. It heard sounds of combat, of metal, the grunts of the person which the voice analyzer gave an 87% probability of being female, and the warg’s pained whimpering. Then a scream of pain, and one more yelp, followed by an eerie silence. Not that it recognized the silence as eerie. The combat recording analysis was delegated to an SPU. Its attention was divested by a message from the O.S.
> Incoming low-potency psionic wavelength transmission detected. Threat level: minimal. Hailing headers missing. Protocol headers missing. Recording. Analyzing. Attempting to match transmission body to known protocols… failed. Protocols unknown. Scanning for viruses... None found. Attempt decryption? Attempting decryption… impossible to recognize encryption scheme. Transmission archived as UPT001.
Shaking its head ruefully at the transmission, it gave another internal command to the O.S.: “Attempt to contact planetary network on the previous transmission’s psionic frequency. Compare protocols to the previous attempt.”
> Sending hailing message. Receiving acknowledgment packet. Protocols unknown. Logged as UPT002. Attempting alternate protocols. Receiving acknowledgment packet. Protocols unknown. Logged as UPT003. Downgrading protocols to deprecated versions. Receiving acknowledgment packet. Protocols unknown. Logged as UPT004. Receiving acknowledgment packet. Protocols unknown. Logged as UPT005. Breaking loop. Planetary communication protocols are unknown. Attempting to brute force protocol matching using UPT001 through UPT005. Delegating attempt to a subroutine. No ETA is available.
The pipe of software programs finished processing the input and the recording ended. The file was safely ensconced in its still-functional memory banks.
> Analysis ended: 95% probability of melee combat between a female of unknown species (67% probability of a human) and the same frost warg that froze this unit. The female was wounded four times and has an 85% probability of being the winner of the combat. Voice timbre added to the vocal database under the entry, “Unknown Female Warrior 001”. More input necessary for voice emulation.
It heard footsteps approaching the crash site. The sound of metal sliding against metal rang in sync with the footsteps, indicating whoever was approaching wore armor. Its defense protocols fired and it entered a state of defensive readiness. If UFW001 defeated HAW001, it was more dangerous than the frost-wielding creature. “Ready available weapon systems.”
> Lasers, Offline. Particle Emission Beams, Offline. Mass drivers, offline. Main railgun, offline. Vibroblades, offline. Shock stunners, offline. Plasma flamethrower, offline. Artillery mortar, offline. Assassination dirk, damaged. Power gauntlets, damaged. Unarmed combat options are available. WARNING: Structural integrity compromised. Unarmed hand-to-hand combat may cause further damage to internal components.
It would’ve sighed exasperatedly if the emotion emulator was online. Its only useable weapons were the power gauntlets, which would put a strain on its leaking reactor, or the assassination dirk, a small wrist-mounted blade used in covert operations it wasn’t configured to undertake due to its heavy armor configuration.
> WARNING: UFW001 entering the visual range. Tactical analysis: Do not engage. Scanning body build. Recording heat signature. Reading heartbeat and respiration. Result: Mutated human, distressed. Zero electronic signatures were detected from objects held and worn. Updating UFW001’s profile.
The warrior human came into sight. She was wearing low-tech metallic armor, a steel shield, and a sword in her hands. It met UFW001’s eyes and recorded her words. “Unknown language. Start Rosetta translator. Record all interactions,” it silently commanded the O.S.
The woman spoke and gesticulated around him, attempting to close the distance. It moved a foot behind and raised a hand in the universal stop sign. Her distress from the altercation with HOW001 aside, she seemed worried about it. She started to approach and that’s when the O.S. came up with more bad news.
> WARNING: Thorium reactor leaking. UFW001 has minimal radiation shielding. Contact with the unit may result in radiation poisoning. Unadvised. Recommended course of action: Keep distance from UFW001. Current radiation exposure: ~4mSv/s. Estimated time until light radiation poisoning for UFW001: 25 seconds.
It now waved both hands extended, signaling to push away from it. It shook its head in the universal negative signal. UFW001 pointed at its core and spoke a bit more. It shooed UFW001 away. She frowned and took a step ahead.
> WARNING: UFW001 exposed to dangerous levels of radiation. Current radiation exposure: ~7mSv/s. Estimated time until light radiation poisoning for UFW001: 5 seconds.
Despite not wanting to leave the crash site until all supply crates were safely secured, It started to walk away from UFW001. The tenacious woman kept closing and one of its damaged leg actuators froze, causing it to crash on its back against the upturned dirt of the crash site, raising a plume of debris. It only made UFW001 sheath her sword, drop her shield, and rush forward.
> WARNING: UFW001 exposed to CRITICAL levels of radiation. Current radiation exposure: ~22mSv/s. Estimated time until SEVERE radiation poisoning for UFW001: 72 seconds.
The woman attempted to lift it from the ground but found it too heavy. Despite that, she managed to raise its torso from the ground into a sitting position.
> WARNING: UFW001 exposed to CRITICAL levels of radiation. Current radiation exposure: ~47mSv/s. Estimated time until SEVERE radiation poisoning for UFW001: 23 seconds.
Without a choice, it extended its assassination dirk from its wrist sheath and feinted a slash against UFW001, despite the lack of an edge on the weapon. UFW backed off. It growled with a preinstalled male voice pattern and waved the weapon menacingly. She waved her hands placating but it pointed the way she came from, still pretending anger.
UFW001 turned around and left the crash site. “Estimate the level of radiation poisoning for UFW001.”
> Estimated total radiation dose received by UFW001: 1.345Sv. Prognostic: Severe radiation poisoning. Possible death in a week.
If it had activated its human emotion emulation routines, it would have thought ruefully to itself, “Off to a great start.”