[/Rebooting]

[/System_power: 14%]

[/Construction_completed: Spare parts, PneumaticRiflev1, Forcebladev1]

[/Construction_halted: Thermalconverterv2 | Insufficent material]

A new day has arrived for the machine, today marks the 6th Sol day of the expedition since the machine's first awaken in the upper area of the cave, 6 days of operating in critical condition on an unknown world alone, had its makers still alive and knew what the machine had gone through, its makers would be proud of their autonomous creation.

The machine starts its day by checking the fabricator to get the nanites needed to construct the parts needed for reattaching the head back onto the hull first, then the machine serves the connection to the crude radar system and puts it aside to make room for the original head before the machine performs an operation on itself in total darkness, using the blueprint and the head's thermal video feed to guide itself through the entire connector replacing operation, it takes 10 minutes for the machine to reconnect the head and establish the data link between the two parts.

After spending another minute to run many diagnostic scans, the machine finds out the processor in its head is no longer in sync with the one in the hull, the clock speed and raw physical data rate is still the same, but the way those two works are too different comparing to its old self several days ago, the machine presumes the optimization process has pushed the secondary processing unit a bit too far. The machine will have to live with it for now as it could still reestablish the sync after a few hours of optimization processes.

[/Constructing: PneumaticRiflev1]

The machine looks at the rifle being built on the ground by the nanite constructor on its right arm for a moment before it picks the finished product up, the air rifle looks very much like the nanite constructor but with a 50cm long barrel on the front and a 1.5l metallic air cylinder on the air, all protected by a thin 10mm of steel casing in form of a small shield. The rifle the machine made is not intended for holding on its hand, but instead, the thing will be attached next to the nanite constructor on its right arm, the thing will serve as a ranged weapon to defend itself and shield to protect the nanite constructor at the same time with this config. Another reason why the machine choose to make the rifle like this is the machine decided to put some basic electronics into the gun, an electric motor to quickly feed the rifle with 14mm-caliber metallic slugs and spitzer bullets and a secondary compressor module to regulate the air pressure for nonlethal and lethal force setting are just what the machine need to defend itself against the bug and aggressive human-like life form in this world.

The machine looks at the rifle closely to do some final inspections first before it attaches the rifle on its right arm and does the power wiring quickly, for now, the rifle will share the same power route as the nanite constructor next to it for the sake of simplicity.

The machine looks at the rifle-constructor assembly for a second before it does a few tests, for now, the tests are just running the main compressor to fill the air reservoir tank and the electric feeding/gas releasing system. Then the machine quickly construct a bullet for test firing, the 14mm spitzer bullet is made out of steel and have a copper jacket as the airgun barrel is rifled for creating spin stabilization effect to increase accuracy, not that this part would be important since the machine will be shooting at oversized bug at close range in the dark tunnel, but rather the machine just wanted to 'future proof' the rifle.

The machine loads the bullet through the feeding hole on the side of the rifle, the machine intended to have it magazine fed for the fast firing effect. So far the rifle has no problem to deal with aside from the rather slow operation speed to save as much power as possible.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

[/Fire_control_system...Online]

[/Calibrating_fire_control_system]

The machine raises its right arm up and aims at an imaginary target on the far side of the room, giving the FCS a few seconds to run ballistic predictions and target simulations, the machine then triggers the gas release valve and launches its first shot at the imaginary target on the wall.

The projectile leaves the barrel slightly slower than the speed of sound by a few meters per second and punches a hole in the wall 80 meters away from the shooter's position, the rifle power seems comparable to a carbine made in the 1970s at its maximum power, but after checking the remaining gas pressure in the reservoir tank, the machine notices it can only fire 2 or 3 times in  quick succession before having to wait for the tank to be refilled and recompressed again. The machine will have to make some optimization works to find a better gas pressure level for sustained firing mode later on.

For now, the machine tries to retrieve the bullet and returns to the fabricator to build the last item in the queue, the force blade, as the machine called it, the blade design is based on the Plasaw by somewhat with a lot of differences, the added 10mm thin metal shield and the physical retractable blade along with the hydraulic pipes are the ones stand out the most.

[/Constructing: Forcebladev1]

The machine once again watches the melee weapon takes form as the nano robots construct the blade on the ground, then it picks it up to inspect the weapon assembly before taking off the Plasaw and stores it in the metal container to make room for its replacement.

[/Forcebladev1_connected]

[/Calibrating_Forcebladev1]

The machine tests the blade by extending and retracting the blade in and out of its metal shield and casing, the impaling force of the blade is comparable to someone strapping a knife onto a motorbike and ramming a bull with said bike-knife at 120km/h, the blade is strong enough to punch through rocks and thin metal, and with the added electric shocking effect produced by 2 pairs of 200V electric-conducting copper strips running along the blade, the machine is certain that even the toughest bug will have to think twice before attacking the machine now.

Now the machine can defend itself, it now begin to focus on its power problem, the machine will need to leave the colony chamber again to find resources needed to build the power generator, at this point the machine thought of creating some kind of light source to give the machine some vision aid, after all since its awakening the machine mainly used infrared vision only, maybe it is time to add in some other visible lights for more details on what it is looking at.

The machine wastes no time as it quickly designs a power-efficient LED flashlight, the thing does not need to be bright as the machine's optical sensor array is far more sensetive than its maker's eyes, the machine only needs it to consume as less power as possible.

After just a second of designing and running basic simulation, the machine transfers the plan to the fabricator to get the basic materials and components needed for the flashlight before it construct it, the thing is a simple 16x8 LED light matrix protected by thin metal sheets and transparent aluminum screen that the machine attaches above its optical sensor arrays and receives power from the head module directly. At 110 lumens the thing is comparable to a headlamp used by miners in the 2010s with the only difference in its low power consumption.

And as the machine thought 'let there be light!', a part of the chamber is lit up with the white light beam coming out from the machine, the machine can now see proper colors, it can zoom in and inspects small texture details of nearly everything it can see, with this the quest for more material will be much easier and safer for the machine.

The machine runs through its diagnostic system for the last time to check its condition and camouflages the fabricator and the container before it leaves the colony chamber once again, locking the door behind it, the machine then ventures into the darkness to continue it never-ending exploration tasks by the name of its makers.

Meanwhile, Emperor Hito of Azuria Empire received a package from the inspector he sent out a few days earlier to check on the undead rumor in the Dark Land of Arcanis, what he found in the package does not surprise him, however, it made him wonder what future is waiting for him and his Empire as he inspected the ancient metal shards in the package, there he quietly read the inscriptions carved on one of the rusted metal shards as he smiled lightly.

'Des-g-ed -y Google.'