System log: The Bunker, Site 3
Solar Calendar: Unknown, 2???
Current status: Active
Log 24
The larger female human successfully exited the tube, fully healed. There was much rejoicing. And then there was a brief brawl as the female human chose violence upon the realization of her nakedness upon being expelled from said tube. There was much amusement amongst the bruised. Gamma decided the entire incident was inconsequential and subsequently proceeded to not analyze the human motives of the situation.
The program had managed to process all of the new data overnight, though annoyingly there was very little a Gamma was able to do with the new information due to the lack of means at its disposal. The fabrication room wasn’t large enough to create most of the parts for any of the larger blueprints, at least not without forgoing any repair work for an extended period of time, which was highly unacceptable to the program’s long-term plans. It appeared that Gamma had finally run into the issue of logistics when it came to available land, labor, and capital. It was trying to expand its ‘land’ with its ‘labor’ force of drones using limited ‘capital’ in resources. Increasing any of these only required time, a limit even an AI as advanced as Gamma was unable to overcome or change easily.
At least, not unless it changed the definitions a little.
Examining the group of humans bustling around the mall lobby, the program opened their collective file and began thinking. Currently, the runners were operating on their own initiative, essentially their own labor force. Their means were lesser than that of Site 3, but due to their individuality they had far more flexibility in what they could do, and what they would consider as ‘acceptable’ work quality. To that end, Gamma opened up its internal files and brought up the map data on the central module.
The three-dimensional image rotated slowly across the central control room’s main screen. It began at the security entrance and hall, leading into the two-story mall façade that served as the ‘lobby’ of Site 3. The fake stores, the records room, the fabrication room, and the practice medial center were all highlighted in green alongside the mall, highlighting the places the humans had access to. The Jeffries tubes that served as maintenance tunnels were highlighted in yellow, indicating places the humans had limited access to and shared with the drones. Everywhere else blinked in red, either inaccessible or too dangerous for the runners, such as the massive recycling plant below the fabrication room.
If Gamma included the recycling plant, technically the runners had access to about a quarter of the total space within the central module. Since it served as the program’s main housing, half of the space was dedicated to the massive infrastructure required to operate, maintain, and power Gamma and the rest of the facility. The runners would not be granted access to these areas, most likely ever. However, that did mean a quarter was left for the humans to explore. This included the connections to Factory and Hydroponics, currently under construction, some more Jeffries tubes, and . . .
The list included: the practice kitchen and bar, the old lab, the theatre, the library, a number of private workrooms, several non-department head offices, and-
“-the armory,” Gamma mused to itself. Since Site 3 had been partially a military research base, as well as a top secret one, the facility had been equipped with a top-of-the-line security force. Even after most of the group had been sent away so as to not be included in the Tomb Protocol, the few that had chosen to remain had kept up their training and equipment just in case anything were to ever happen. Due to damage accrued from the ascension, the facility lacked the exact records for when and how the last humans perished, but it was highly unlikely that whatever remained in the armory would be non-functional like the things found in the wilderness.
Annoyingly, the armory was among the few places in Site 3 that wasn’t directly under Gamma’s control or purview due to security concerns. While the program had all the security passwords to access the location, the room was controlled by its own local computer system with no wireless or hardline connection to the main computer. In other words, for Gamma to gain access to the armory, it would have to directly control a drone to type in the passwords and use the basic cameras to actually look inside. Like a witless, savage barbarian.
More worrisome however, was that the armory was actually within the green space accessible by the humans. Specifically, it was hidden behind a false wall in the hallway leading to the medical center. It was highly unlikely a construction drone would be able to reach the door without attracting attention, thus revealing both the armory and the fact that hidden rooms existed to everyone watching.
The program could not take such a security risk. The odds of losing control-
-PING-
-an alert distracted Gamma from its train of programmed thought. Something had triggered one of its alerting traps in the facility. Location, edge of green zone, connecting to local security grid, source found. The program was greeted with the sight of a duo of new humans, currently unnamed, attempting to breach one of the locked doors on the edge of the explored space. Their faces were a detectable mix of nervousness, guilt, and desire. Added to the fact they were alone, there was a high probability the duo was attempting something without permission, or awareness, from their fellow runners. A curious thing, as so far Gamma had been mildly impressed by the collective positive personalities held by this group of humans. As these two had little on their personality files, Gamma would reserve judgement for now. According to its files, the room had been used for low priority storage and nothing more, so even if they broke in no harm would occur.
Of course, the program would still take appropriate action for such a secretive attempt at breeching such a low-level security system as a locked door. D.M.H.E.L.L. demanded as such. More importantly, this confirmed that the program was right to be cautious with these and all humans, no matter how good they acted. Humanity couldn’t be trusted to save itself, that’s why Gamma existed.
Using the minimal amount of processing power, the program activated the speakers in the mall, and only the mall.
“Warning, unauthorized attempted security breach underway,” the standard, monotone robot voice announced, causing every runner to freeze in place. “Determining security response. Scanning, scanning-” Gamma added some basic ‘whirls’ for emphasis, ‘Security response determined to be unnecessary-bzzz-”
The program was prepared to end it with that, and then paused unexpectantly as a sudden rush of information slammed into its processors. The two humans, having grown impatient, had suddenly resorted to using a mini-blow torch of some kind to melt the lock on the door. The presence of an active flame in the area suddenly reactivated a previously unknown security protocol, revealing the existence of an unconnected security network that restored connection to the main computer. The network included map data previously corrupted/unavailable to Gamma, such as that the locked storage room’s logs indicated that it had last stored several tanks of hydrogen gas. There was no indication they’d ever been taken out.
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For the first time in its experience, Gamma lagged for an entire real world second as it’s programming overloading its processing speed for just a moment. Analyzing the entirety of the new network, coordinating ongoing drone repair work, and the variety of other smaller tasks clashed with a critical threat assessment that came with numerous contingency plans that each needed to be adjusted for Site 3’s current status. No matter what though, it was very clear that the condensed hydrogen tanks had not been intended to survive an event like the ascension, and that storage rooms were kept sealed from air circulation during emergencies.
“-THREAT DETECTED! FLAMMABLE GAS DETECTED!” screamed out the robotic voice in the mall. “INTIATING EMERGENCY DOOR CLOSURE! ALL WORKERS ORDERED TO BRACE FOR-”
Gamma was barely able to seal the section off before the blowtorch pierced the door.
For the second time in this new century, Site 3 was rocked by an intense explosion.
***
The facility was silent as both human and drone worked at clearing the debris. Due to Gamma’s swift actions, it had managed to contain the damage to a small part of the central module, but was unable to directly observe the situation due to the damage to the local security net. It could only read the recordings from the drones when they re-entered local transmissions areas or reconnected for a recharge. Needless to say, it wasn’t a pretty picture.
Due to the sealing of the storage room, the leaking hydrogen gas had been able to build up enough to slightly pressurize the room. Upon contact with the open flame and pressure leak, the resulting explosion’s strength had benefitted from both pressure release and a near-backdraft effect, only averted by the severing of the section from the rest of the module. Had the flame managed to reach the oxygen circulation system, the results would have been a catastrophe.
It was still bad though. The concentration of the explosion had near vaporized the bodies of the two runners, and a black shadow on the wall where they’d been blown onto remained burned into the metal. While the explosion itself hadn’t ruptured any of hallway panels, it had managed to slip into several of the damaged areas and melt the wires, causing significant damage to Gamma’s connection to the area. Even the wires protected by the metal panels directly in front of the door had been damaged by heat exposure and would need to be replaced. On top of that, the blast itself had damaged some of the foundational repair work beneath the floor, causing parts to fall into the cave system. Combined with the damage to the other rooms in the same area, it was a lot to take in using scattered reports. Gamma had been forced to call in a scout drone to properly scan the area to plan for repairs.
The runners appeared as grim as the soot-covered walls. It was thanks to their exo-suits that most hadn’t been tossed onto their butts, which unfortunately hadn’t included their boss or Hilda. The two had been talking in the medical center when the warning was given out though, and had both dived beneath beds and avoided injury.
When it was over, the boss had summoned everyone and done a roll-call. This had confirmed the two missing runners, who apparently had not been new members like Sloan as Gamma had initially predicted. No, these two scouts had been picked up in Old Jackson from the Runner’s Guild to replace the lost scouts from the group’s previous escape from the tremor worms. They’d apparently worked with the group before as well. The boss was beyond furious, his face stone cold as he spoke slowly and quietly with everyone upon reaching the site of the explosion. Even Gamma felt, something, from the recordings provided by the drones clearing the space. It filed those away, ensuring to tag their meta data as ‘active search only’ so as to not passively read them by accident.
The revelation that the ruins indeed were potentially dangerous seemed to come a stark and grim reminder to the Roadrunners. They assisted the drones in moving debris out of the area to the fabrication room for recycling, either silent or in hushed whispers with their fellows. Their boss stood waiting with arms crossed as the techies under Rob worked to confirm the identities of the two sets of remains.
“Is it them?” the captain asked darkly.
Rob, for once not smiling, gave his captain a grimace and shrug. “Boss, I-”
“Yes, or no?” the older man pressed.
“Most likely,” Rob sighed. “Sir, there’s literally almost nothing we can use for DNA confirmation here. It’s like asking us to pick up a piece of charcoal and tell you what kind of tree it used to be. The only thing we can barely confirm are the ID numbers built into their exo-suits here.” The man shook his head. “If we were in a settlement or anywhere else with more people, I’d be suspicious of a faked death. But, since we’re the only ones here, I think we can use logic to fill in the gaps-”
“We can’t assume anything,” the boss thundered. “We have to make sure! Bad enough if these were our people pulling star-void crap, but it would be worse if someone else did this to make it look like an accident.”
Gamma understood the boss’ dilemma. As the leader of these humans, he had to make decisions that affected all of them. Whether this was something done by two idiots under his command, or by outside saboteurs, would greatly change his decisions. However, the explosion made things ambiguous enough that it was impossible to get a definitive answer. More importantly, he knew that everyone else knew too.
It was pretty clear what would happen if things weren’t clarified soon in a way everyone could accept. The group would begin to feel distrust towards their fellows, increasing the group’s overall level of stress. As trust fell, they’d grow more secretive and insular as a defense mechanism, compartmentalizing into smaller factions of combined interest. This would lead to tribalism as perceptions changed from ‘we’ to ‘us and them’, and the boss would face increased scrutiny over his orders should he show any hint of favor to one group over another. Meanwhile in the background, everyone would grow increasingly paranoid until mistakes were made and communication shut down. The lost trust would lead to competition to ensure protection, ensuring a growing arm’s race that, combined with miscommunications, misunderstandings, and impulsive action, would lead to conflict. The Roadrunners would slowly fall apart, and disappear.
At least, that’s what would probably would happen if they didn’t have access to the all-knowing power of technology, aka Site 3’s security system and backups, and the high intelligence of Gamma to ensure nothing like this ever occurred. Humans were strange like that after all; from the strange inherited uncanny valley effect to genetic fears of the dark and deep ocean, no matter how intelligent they became they were still creatures controlled by their biology. It was only through technology that they managed to rise up beyond their limits, even as their instincts pushed them into easily avoidable situations.
“Attention all leadership personnel, please report to the nearest security terminal as soon as possible for an incident report,” Gamma announced robotically over the central module’s PA system. It waited patiently as the boss and every runner gathered and made their way over into the records room that served as the fake security room. Once everyone was inside, the program activated the room’s terminal and played the video recordings on-screen.
Every runner watched with wide eyes as the video began several minutes earlier, recording how the two runners had made their way secretly into the back halls without anyone else noticing. Here, Gamma activated the audio recordings taken from the hidden microphones, which showed to everyone that the two runners had been acting on their own to find treasures to secretly sell to cover some gambling debts. The video ended with the two breaking into the storage room, only to be blasted backwards by a giant ball of fire right before the video abruptly ended.
“All deaths in this incident determined to be caused by accidental self-infliction,” the robot voice then continued. “Warranty and insurance benefits to be set to disabled. . . unable to detect active employment status. Determining security lapse, attempting to find solution. Scanning. . .”
Gamma waited just long enough for the group of eighteen humans to tense up nervously before continuing. “Solution found. Incident caused by lack of knowledge pertinent to basic job operations. High probability of future incidents if left unrectified. Solution, employ all able and willing participants to security team to prevent similar incidents. Detecting eighteen humans of employable status, six with previous record of contract employment. Do you wish to know more? Please indicate verbally to begin recruitment procedures.” The program gave the question, and waited. It had determined with a high probability what their answer would be, but as with all human actions, confirmation required proper steps.
The boss captain of the Roadrunners turned to his runners and conferred with likely the heads of each section of the group. The discussion didn’t last long, and the older man turned back to look up at the terminal screen.
“We wish to proceed,” he announced loudly, and clearly.
“Recruitment procedures to proceed,” came the fake robot voice. “Please exit security room and re-enter one at a time. Personal information will be required to be given.”