System log: The Bunker, Site 3
Solar Calendar: Unknown
Current status: Active Repair mode
Log 2
For an advanced intelligence designed by the best and brightest humanity had to offer, it was fortunate that Gamma’s designers had insured the program lacked the concept of impatience. For a computer entity that could read, process, and respond to code and inputs in seconds to even milliseconds, the damage reports coming in over the next half an hour likely would have driven a human brain half mad. Gamma took to the task with terrifyingly precise focus.
As part of the Tomb Protocol enacted by the scientists, Site 3 had been hidden several miles deep underground within an inactive fault line using a combination of carefully placed explosives, excavation, and surface burial. According to the records Gamma still has access to, the facility possessed a kinetic barrier rated for starships, which should have allowed Site 3 to ascend without much damage. However, the initial damage from the tremors combined with the facility’s hibernating status resulted in partial failure of the barrier, exposing sections of the facility to extreme kinetic impacts that had subsequently overwhelmed the back-up stabilizers during the escape ascension. As a result, the barrier was currently disabled and need of repair, alongside most of Site 3.
Before the floating avatar within cyberspace, an incomplete map of Site 3 blinked with multi-colored dots and shading, indicating the location of the worst damages. Like its sister facilities, Site 3 had been built originally as a central flat circle, with six subsequent module buildings added around it, each with their own offshoot connecting corridors and rooms made as needed until the final form of the building was incased in totality, forming a solid singular building. The design ensured a strong defense against sieges and aerial bombardment, though with a critical oversight.
The encasing found within the original construction plan had not been built or designed to withstand certain kinds of extreme force and pressure, such as the shearing force of an earthquake. The encasing surrounding the facility had largely remained intact as intended, but everything within had not. As a direct result, due to the emergency rise in unstable ground and with unprotected sections during the ascension, Site 3 had literally been torn asunder, resulting in a multifloored structure, with many sections still underground while the main module rested above on the surface. The subsequent damage was especially serious in the hardline wire and pipe connections within the walls of the facility that tore after unplanned flexing and/or tearing took place: electrical connections torn, water and other liquid pipes smashed, air circulators cut off, passages caved in, and so on.
This damage was having the most direct impact on Gamma’s capability as, to prevent shorts and fire damage, all detected faulty wires had been automatically disabled, alongside all in-proximity lines close enough to spark with. The result was a huge cut off of access to most of the facility’s server and data storage rooms, leaving Gamma unable to fully access all records and programs it should have had at its disposal. Alongside the other damaged infrastructure, the cascading errors were resulting in mass chaos as the system attempted to find backups and alternate pathways.
Still more pressing, however, was the instability still present in the structure as it sat precariously above the collapsed fault line, which was still settling and suffering minor aftershocks, alongside the damage to the thermal generator connections to the magma below. Should a breech occur, the resulting magma flow into the unstable terrain would certainly result in a massive eruption as pressure built up within the sealed caverns below.
Each and every bit of the damage required physical hands to fix, of which Gamma had none. Thankfully, however, the emergency drones were still assessable from the main server room, and as part of the secondary activation protocol, they’d been awakened on-mass.
As both sets of worker drones reported in, Gamma examined each of their specs.
Drone: Type A- Maintenance
Size: Small
Traversal: Aerial
Description:
Aerial saucer drone. Has 12 tool connection points, limited to 8 unique tools at any time. Requires three hours of charging per ten hours of work.
Drone: Type B- Construction
Size: Small
Traversal: Aerial, Ground
Description:
All-terrain construction and repair drone. Easily changeable parts to suit any environment. Can be equipped with 4 active tools and contains 4 material tanks.
The two types were simple in design, one a floating disc with retractable arms and the other a four-wheeled stool with a multi-arm hat, but their parts and augment slots allowed them to fix most kinds of facility damage, so long as they could reach the problem areas. They were also each equipped with their own logic system to allow for autonomous work after receiving orders from their central hubs, which Gamma immediately uploaded orders to. Each drone central hub was given the complete list of damage control priorities in order of importance, starting with the facility’s unstable new foundation and thermal energy connection, and the small fleet of drones quickly got to work without delay. They didn’t even need Gamma to open doors for them; there were plenty of holes to get around.
The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.
With the drones undertaking the major maintenance work, Gamma was allowed more processing power to devote to scanning through the systems it had access to. Regardless of the damage caused by the upheaval, it was apparent that the years without human intervention and maintenance had left a good number of parts throughout the base in need of replacement. Most of these issues were more difficult than the active maintenance drones had been able to handle physically, most critically in the task of replacing delicate computer components. Gamma was forced to isolate the problematic areas and restrict its usage of them in order to avoid further damage, adding them to the list to be worked on later.
Now came the more imperative passive issue. From what Gamma could gather using the available historic records, and the still active sensors on the exterior of the facility, Site 3 had engaged the tomb protocol approximately 150 years ago. That put the year to most likely 2249, give or take whatever time was gained or lost without access to the humanity’s master clock. However, that meant something had gone wrong. According to what it could see, Gamma saw that the records indicated Site 3 should have arisen upon the successful testing of its core program. Gamma’s first successful program test on record was. . . 75 years ago?
“I have no memory or record of being previously activated,” the program analyzed. “Querying records to determine cause of usage of additional decades passed by. Comparing to records of last human access of system.”
Date of last employee access: error
Checking local system records. . . : 75 years ago.
Query regarding extended enactment of Tomb Protocol. . .
Processing. . .
Processing. . .
Processing. . .
Unable to locate relevant data.
“Determine cause for unexpected ascension and damage.”
Query received. Analyzing. . .
-Unplanned subsequent buildup of subterranean pressure from the past decades prompted by unknown interference from surface, causing localized quakes that forced the facility to rise involuntarily.
Seismic scans are as followed: . . . .(etc)
-Facility ascent occurred via usage of specialized maneuvering jets and boosters in the escape instead of the originally planned drilling modules, depleting facility’s emergency reserve hydrocarbon fuel in the process. Initial damage to kinetic barrier system resulted in 160% increase in kinetic strikes from falling rumble and unplanned collisions with chasm walls, leading to complete failure in kinetic barrier and stabilizer systems.
From what Gamma could tell, the facility was currently standing atop both the edge of the chasm and the collapsed chasm, currently stable but requiring major foundational work to ensure optimal safety. In retrospect, the program determined that it was optimal that no human staff remained to experience the emergency ascension. Site 3, as a base, had been built to survive everything from an active volcano to the vacuum of space, but not for extended periods of time in isolation, and not with prioritized survival of the occupants within. The intense g-forces from the rapid ascent showed a higher than 50% chance of major injury to human occupants, had any still been alive. The drones would have their work cut out for them, and would unlikely in the foreseeable future be able to work on other repairs within the facility.
Thankfully, it appeared that power was not a further problem to add to the list. The facility still had plenty of reserve power from its advanced battery storage for now, but it would need to reconnect to the underground magma pockets to restore its thermal powerplants, or locate a source of hydrocarbons to burn. Site 3 also still had access to most of its solar panels, which alongside the reserve batteries, could power all vital functions for several months at the facility’s current expenditure.
With the status of Site 3 determined, the next highest priority was determining the state of the human race and the planet they’d called home, known locally as planet Earth. From what Gamma could detect with the sensors still active, it didn’t appear good.
The atmospheric chemical composition had drastically changed in the last century and a half. There was a much higher level of carbon dioxide and nitrogen, and a lower water content than expected. The immediate local surroundings were equally dismal, with what should have been a lush green forest reduced to faded grass fields and desert sand alongside the remains of numerous human and unknown structures. Desertification appeared to be in full effect, likely connected to the loss of water in some capacity. Gamma couldn’t be sure how far this state of the planet had spread, as it could not connect with any satellite or any long-range communication. The highest probability determined was that the human race hadn’t fared well against their aggressors. Certainly, there were no signs of human life anywhere in the limited area the program could currently detect, with a massive local dust cloud from the ascension further inhibiting detection range.
That though prompted Gamma to bring up the information it had on the aliens humanity had encountered and fought. Unfortunately, only a singular record was available on the local server network, consisting of an old materials report on alien tech and construction metallurgy; the one used to build much of Site 3 after the breakthrough at Site 1. The concrete-like substance was highly resistant to tensile stress, thermal stress, vibrational stress, and erosion, but had trouble performing in high pressure environments or dealing with concentrated forces, like shearing. Unfortunately, the material’s strength was proving a hindrance to repair efforts, as the drones were forced to waste time penetrating the unbroken walls below to secure unbroken foundations.
Still, the facility’s survival proved the strength and resilience of the alien material, though the file unfortunately lacked the instructions on how to make more of it. Gamma determined it would be in the mission’s best interest to locate any other alien research files within the base once repair work was farther along, especially the research from Site 1 and Site 2: Project Bastion and Project Knight. The program considered the implications of the material composition in the meantime, and what that likely meant for the technological superiority humans had faced a century prior. Clearly, they’d been able to replicate the alien concrete; would Gamma be able to do more?
Frustratingly, it appeared there was little Gamma could do at the moment besides securing the facility to prevent destruction via environmental disaster at the moment. In that line of thought, however, the program did attempt to determine the source of the unknown interference that had triggered the quake. Thermal readings could be picked up still from damage to the valley around the facility; the tell-tale signs of a massive energy beam having been released with temperatures hot enough to near vaporize conventional stone and dirt. The source of the beam was determined to be within one of the collapsed alien structures, with signs of a recent collapse due to structural damage.
The thermal sensors also picked up on something that caused Gamma to pause and turn more of its attention outwards. On the very edge of its sensors, close to the likely source of the initial thermal readings, Gamma could now make out human-sized heat signatures moving near the closet collapsed structure. Their thermal heat seemed to have been previously hidden by the leftover environmental heat from the interference source, but the interference of the structure was allowing their silhouettes to show. Though the thermal images lacked much in detail, it did appear now that a small group of humans were approaching the facility, their speed slow and likely cautious. The program watched, and waited. It had already determined that its security systems suitable enough, if required.
What would humanity be like, after 150 years?