Intense heat. Building pressure. Gravity anomaly. Fracture in ship hull detected. Deploying magnetic pedites… activated. Deploying personal shield… activated. Objective: protect the child. Raced the processing analysis and conclusion through Sentinel MO-M1’s calculation servos. The ship’s hull was punctured by a powerful explosion that rocked the entire ship. The Sentinel’s internal lateral processor detected a rapid descent along the originally plotted course, far from standard procedure.
Around the sentinel the furniture was shaking, reinforced metal was buckling, and its ward was endangered. Mevi, this sentinel’s charge and ward, was unconscious from a blow against the protective casing of her seat and the sudden change in air pressure. Zelkan, identified as the 3rd most priority lifeform, was barely conscious as the pressure in the vessel changed rapidly to match what was outside. M1 had one hand holding the child’s cage, while the other protected Priority 3 from falling upwards or into a wall. Both entities were protected, stable, but the projected course of the vessel being uploaded to M1’s internal calculators predicted a violent crash that would result in 89% casualties. Unacceptable.
Sentinel M1 briefly released the Child’s cage, she was in no immediate danger. Refocusing its attention on Priority 3. Still holding Priority 3’s arm, M1 forced the small humanoid into his chair and buckled it in. Ripping pieces of once-decorative metal bars and struts out of the wall, M1 formed a make-shift cage to protect Priority 3. Priority 3 yelled constantly, insisting “Protect Lady Mevare, leave me be!” As his orders were in direct violation of the sentinel’s emergency task analysis processor’s evaluation, the directive was ignored.
Once Priority 3 was secured, a marker on Sentinel M1’s vision HUD displayed: ‘Survival chance increased by 23%. Survival rate: 59%.’ Acceptable. Additional survival rate will increase when the ship is secured. Went M1’s thought process. Turning to the Child, Priority 1, M1’s vision HUD displayed 62% survival rate. Unacceptable. M1 moved to the Child’s cage, the small girl was still buckled and limp in the protective casing. Gently moving the Child’s extremities, despite the turbulence, M1 repositioned its ward into a safer position. Then, using its immense strength, it bent the protective cage around the Child to fully encase them from harm. M1’s vision HUD displayed, ‘Survival chance increased by 19%. Survival rate: 81%.’ Unacceptable. Seeking additional safeguards.
Without any other choice, M1 left the Child and Priority 3 in the relatively safe cabin. Exiting its ward’s room, M1 witnessed the chaos outside. Barely standing amidst a whirlwind of furniture, a piece of long jagged metal pierced through its left shoulder, sentinel MO-M2 stood in protection of Priority 2. Priority 2, the tan-skinned and black-haired humanoid, identified as Saerin, huddled against the vitae-leaking sentinel. M2 had pieces of its armored chassis forcefully removed or otherwise pierced by smaller shrapnel and debris. Yet it stood in protection of its charge valiantly.
Moving quickly to secure Priority 2, M1 ignored the obviously dead bodies flying around the space. Their speed and damage made identification difficult without focus, so their identification could be ignored until the emergency task analysis processor dictated their evaluation priority. Taking Priority 2 from M2, M1 moved to a nearby cabin. Quickly closing the distance, while protecting Priority 2 from multiple pieces of flying furniture, the two of them entered the relative safety within the empty cabin. It took only moments to secure Priority 2 within this cabin’s protective cage. Bending the metal the same way it did for the Child, Priority 2 was secured. Their consciousness ebbing in and out dangerously, M2 deployed an electro-stim that would put them into a more consistent state of unconsciousness. Without their mask, Priority 2 was subject to elemental and air-chemical changes that might cause them delirium and result in accidental self-harm. As the stim was administered M1’s vision HUD displayed, ‘Survival rate: 92%’. Acceptable.
Priority 2 secured, M1 moved back into the chaos of the main deck. M2 struggled to move, their right magnetic pedite malfunctioning to a point of uselessness. Yet M1 tracked their trajected course; Priority 6, the blue-skinned creature that was newly acquired and identified as Hellion. Priority 6 clung to a piece of opened panel, barely hanging on with the whirlwind around him. M1 identified its next task, as the bodies were still unidentified, and moved to secure the new objective.
Securing Priority 6 was easy enough, yet the small blue creature’s squirming made carrying him difficult. Due to the air pressure and foreign air chemistry now freely flowing through the vessel, Priority 6 was likely experiencing minor hallucinations. It was dangerous, but necessity required it, M1 administered an electro-stim before Priority 6 was safely secured in a cabin seat. With the limp body no longer fighting against salvation, M1 moved to enter the nearest cabin.
As M1 approached the nearest door, which was opposite of the doors the Child resided, it stopped. The suction of air was beginning to increase on the side of the vessel M1 was heading towards. Anomaly detected. Pinged M1’s precognitive danger proximity alarm. The device was rarely wrong, turning its back to the door and holding Priority 6 firmly, M1 prepared for an unknown danger.
Suddenly the door ripped from the wall, exposing the vessel fully to the outside. The vessel’s pressure levels were already mostly equal with what was outside, but a sudden suction of air was inevitable. One. Two. Three. Three unidentified bodies were sucked out into a great nothing. Just before a fourth body exited, the breach response shields finally activated; cutting off entry or exit to the damaged hull. The fourth body, halfway through the door when the shield activated, was cut in half with only the torso and an arm remaining.
Time was of the essence, Priority 6 needed to be secured and remaining priorities found. Then a safe crash trajectory needed to be calculated if it wasn’t already. With Priority 6 under M1’s arms, M1 made its way to a nearby cabin that was uncompromised. Quickly fastening the protective straps of the seat’s padded cage to Priority 6, this task was done. Yet even as the safety straps were in place, the survival rate of Priority 6 dropped rapidly. 74% went to 71%, then 67%. Unacceptable. Without visual confirmation, M1’s predictive rate calculator assumed the Child’s new survival rate was 72%. Utterly, unacceptable. The new factor of a catastrophic hull breach would certainly drop all of M1’s priorities’ survival rates by factors that were unacceptable.
Returning once again to the chaos, the whirlwind calmed slightly with the breach mostly closed by the shield, M2 struggled to move. Scanning Sentinel Unit MO-M2… Multiple fractures in chassis, internal functions compromised, internal structure shattered. Prognosis: Extreme bluntforce trauma suffered. Time until service ceases; 325.8 hours. Confirm? Processed Sentinel M1. Sentinel M2 received the request in a fraction of a second, and normally a reply would be just as quick. Yet M2’s response came at an unacceptably slow 2.3 seconds late. Using its crude vocal speakers, wasting time due to severe damage no doubt, M2 reported, “Higher functions compromised. Waregear compromised. Utility compromised. Requesting remote control takeover.” said M2 in a deep, stiff, and quiet rumble.
Sentinel M1 didn’t bother a response, if a sentinel unit requested a remote takeover that meant its thinking program was generating errors or otherwise infected with instability. M1 activated its full takeover bug, which transferred instantly to M2’s primary processor. Relinquishing all control to M1, M1 and its new body moved forward. Using M2 to identify the remaining bodies, while M1 progressed down a service hatch to the lower deck.
Just as M1 approached the door to the bridge, M2 identified Priority 4 from amongst the bodies. Priority 4, a thin, light-blue, humanoid identified as Ouapi was marked as deceased. Bluntforce trauma and extreme asphyxiation the primary causes. Summoning M2 to its side, M1 proceeded onto the bridge.
The bridge was a mess of chaos and carnage. The left half of the platform, that should be filled with control consoles and navigational gear, was instead ripped free of the vessel and replaced by open air and a faint shimmering shield. The shield was intact, stable, but if the ambient download of information was correct; the ship’s reactor was rapidly deteriorating due to an unknown cause. Manning the remaining stations were three conscious acolytes and the Captain. Priorities 7 and 5 respectively. Surprised to see something enter the bridge, the acolytes stopped their work for a moment. It took less than the length of their pause for their captain to yell, “Quit your gawking, back to work!”
Sentinel M1 sent a request to the Captain, directly to the Captain’s nerve implant, Status. Current safety measures = inadequate. Requesting additional safeguards before crash.
“Ugh!” winced the Captain from the received datastream, “Aeh, we are doing the best we can. Normally we would activate the atmospheric shield, but something was lodged into the reactor section. We can’t draw more power until it is removed.”
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
Confirmed. Reactor will = cleared. Replied the Sentinel, attaching the message to the already open datastream.
Sentinel M1 turned to leave just as M2 limped to the bridge door. Sentinel M1 made to move towards the reactor section at the back end of the lower deck, but suddenly M2 grabbed it’s shoulder. Error. Irregular activity detected. Deactivate. Demanded M1, reaching for its holstered handgun.
A counter datastream was sent back, by M2’s faulty processor despite the full-takeover protocol that M1 enacted. Error… Rejected. Sentinel Unit MO-M2 = not in error. Sentinel Unit MO-M1 = in error.
Explain. Demanded M1.
Sentinel Unit MO-M2 = compromised. Utility negligible. Soon = Dead. M2 explained, Unit MO-M1 = Plan. Plan = Enter reactor alone. Result = Unit MO-M1’s death.
Sentinel Units = expendable. Retorted M1.
Sentinel M2 spoke for the second time, a strangely human voice echoing below the monotone buzz, “Then expend me.”
M1 calculated the chances of success. If M1 went itself, the unknown variables regarding the state of the reactor could very well result in M1’s instant destruction. Sending M2 would allow for scouting actions and an acquiring of data. Unit MO-M2’s plan = not in error. Enacting strategy.
Both sentinels marched down the crew quarters. M2 struggled to keep pace with their fully functioning counterpart, but held partial control over its own motor functions once again. M1 disregarded the catastrophic error, for now, as the destruction of M2 was almost certainly assured. The automated report after concluding this mission will inform those interested in the sudden error in personality protocol.
The two sentinel units stood outside a heavy tri-alloy vault door. A massive safety emplacement to keep the extremely unstable energetic powers from infecting or eroding a ship’s crew. Automatically connecting to the reactor’s regulation sensors, M1 confirmed the presence of an unknown object and a lack of protective shielding around the reactor chamber. No gestures or instructions were required, M2 knew its duty.
Activating the heavy door with a thought, the door struggled to open, so giving it a helping hand by ripping the heavy door back into the pocket in the wall it should normally retract into, M2 then proceeded inside while M1 gathered visual and sensory data outside. There indeed was an object lodged in the reactor, and in the hull floor, sticking out of the vessel entirely. Like something threw a jagged rocky hill at the ship and part of the weaponized terrain stayed behind. Initial visual scans recorded the probable size of the stone object to be at least 23 meters long.
The spike of rock punctured the bottom hull of the reactor, just barely missing the main core. Instead it punctured semi-vital systems like auxiliary safety precautions such as individual cabin shielding power reserves. M2’s feed gathered data, while being bombarded by intense radiation that even sentinels are damaged by. As the data was collected, the only course of action viable seemed to be to cut loose the damaged section and release the object. The ship’s automatic repair system will activate after the foreign object is removed.
M1 began entering the reactor, but before it could M2 closed the door. In a flash of movement and a powerful override code to the reactor control system, M2 blocked M1’s path into the reactor. Erratic behavior detected. Explain. Demanded M1 over the shared mental link.
Mission = Unfinished. Primary objective = Protect the Child. Sentinel Unit MO-M1’s continued functions = required for mission. Conclusion /// Secondary objective = Protect Sentinel Unit MO-M1. Explained M2, cuts and pauses slowing the datastream.
Conclusion calculations = in error. Unit MO-M2 = in error. Report to repair bay. Await further instructions.
M1 could sense slight movement from M2’s vocal utensils and vocal speakers. It was trying to talk with its vocal speakers and at the same time sending a faint datastream, M2 simply said “No.” Then, turning its back to the reactor door, M1 was helpless but to watch M2’s erratic behavior through their shared visual link. M1 had lost all control, any trace of its full takeover bug was somehow wiped from M2’s system. All that remained was a partial visual takeover, allowing slight view perspectives every few moments as the signal cut in and out.
M2 moved to the stone spike, and began its work. Taking out the energetic rifle all sentinels are outfitted with, M2 began the slow process of heating and melting the ground-side hull. The armor of the ship is thick, and automatically repairs itself when damaged, so progress was slow. Yet thanks to the foreign object’s presence, the hull buckled and bent which allowed slightly easier penetration.
The work was grueling, and took too long by M1’s calculations. By the time M2 would cut enough of the ship away to remove the spike, the Child’s chances of survival would only be at 87%. There must be something else M1 could do to ensure complete safety. So M1 stopped its attempts to counteract the reactive firewall M2 had erected, choosing instead to let it work autonomously for now.
Digging into the side panels near the reactor vault door, the circuit and current routes were exposed. Identifying what fed power where, M1 began quickly remaking the circuit routes. Synthesizers = unneeded, rerouting power. Weapon systems = non-functional, rerouting power. Teardrive system = unneeded, rerouting power. M1 worked quickly and expertly, using its handgun’s various heat and output settings to act as a welder and cutter. Various redundant, broken, or useless systems were cut off and rerouted. After deactivating 47 individual systems, M1 finally restored power to individual shielding units in the cabins and decks. It would take a couple minutes for them to be fully charged, but after reaching full charge the power would remain in-system for at least 84 hours.
While M1 worked on its task to reroute power, it also monitored M2’s progress. Despite its disabled state, the sentinel unit worked diligently. M1 even decided to aid the unit’s error-riddled program, providing technical support in the barely functional datastream connecting them. As M2 stayed longer and longer in the reactor, its various system functions shut down faster and faster. What once was 300 hours of function was quickly cut down to less than 100 hours due to the radiation alone. Yet the unit’s task was nearly finished.
The rapid and high powered welding of the energetic rifle stalled the regenerative hull long enough to slowly move and slide the rock spike further and further out of the reactor. Before five minutes of work was done the rock spike was in a place to be forcefully removed with strength alone. Yet M1 was still barred entrance from the reactor by M2’s scrap-code firewall. If M1 was in the reactor with M2 the work would have finished in less than half the time, and if M1 was there now it would have enough strength to force the rock spike out of the hull. As it stood, M2 had few options remaining.
The reactor was leaking dangerously, if the ship’s auto repair systems couldn’t fix the damage soon a safe landing would be impossible. With M1’s uplink to the few still-functioning ship systems, M1 calculated less than 173 seconds before their course was in an irreversible death spiral. M1 transferred relevant data to M2, and the unit knew what it had to do.
Attaching the two handguns into the combi-slot along the top and bottom of the energetic rifle, the weapon’s power quadrupled in available strength. The device was quickly swapped to force-emission, and the recoil functions were disabled. The only way to protect it’s priority 1 objective was the use of its own body. Positioning itself against the rock spike, aiming at a section of hull that’s circuitry was already disabled and power rerouted, M2 could pull the trigger any moment and in doing so protect their priority objective. Yet it hesitated.
Sentinel Unit MO-M2, specifically requisitioned for the sole purpose of protecting the Child and its belongings, hesitated in performing its duty. The unit wasted precious moments as unintelligible code processed through its heavily corrupted system. As M1 attempted to invade M2’s main processor with another attempt at a full takeover, the seemingly random data was partially viewable. Unit M2 seemed to be recalling… Memories. Yet not reviewing data, instead recalling ancient memories meant to be deleted long ago. Things that should have been scrubbed to save space and maintain focus, to prevent such catastrophic errors as M1 was currently witnessing.
M2 hesitated for 3 seconds, 8, 15, 20, and then 30 seconds. M2 spent 30 precious seconds reviewing ancient memories of entirely useless value, no strategic or utilitarian value was seen in these actions. Pictures of an animal, vast golden plains, scaling a towering mountain, a dark shape in the sky, sudden captivity, and then quiet silence. M2 wasted 30 seconds recalling useless data that should have been scrubbed from its systems. Yet once the 30 seconds was over, M1 received one final datastream transmission, I'm ready. Glory be to the Lords Magi.
M1 hesitated to respond for 0.08 seconds, but eventually replied, Glory be to the Lords Magi.
With the final exchange between the two autonomous Sentinel Units, M2 activated their fully-charged energetic rifle. Set to force-emission, the device erupted in a powerful blast. With the recoil functions deactivated the power of the blast was increased exponentially, and where M2 aimed the hull was ripped free and shot out into the open nothing. The force in front was equal in proportion to the force behind. Sentinel Unit MO-M2 launched itself and the stone spike free from the ship, flying out into the open nothing beyond.
As M2’s functions faltered due to the incredible force that nearly ripped it to shreds, M1 received a few more moments of visual transmission. The transmission showed fire and destruction raining from the atmosphere of Demnos IV. Ships were aflame as they hurtled towards the surface at speeds that would spell certain doom for those aboard. Some vessels maintained course, only to be hit with 20 meter long rock spikes that tore through or embedded themselves into the remaining vessel’s hull. Swarms of flying creatures as large as some small escort vessels attached themselves to and tore at the flying vessels. Some few ships had managed to turn free of the chaos and retreat back into space, but it was a fraction of the whole. Fire and carnage rained on the jungle planet of Demnos IV. Yet Sentinel Unit MO-M1 was unfazed.
As the transmission feed cut out, M1’s vision HUD displayed updating information. Regenerative hull was reforming around the reactor, projecting time until full hull repair was 0.23 hours. Yet the repair was not the intent. With the foreign object removed, full-power deck shielding could rengage around the reactor, allowing a stable environment and power routes to be more or less reestablished. The ship’s functions were recharging, and with enough spare time to ensure the Child had a 94% survival rate. The only thing that could increase this rate now was to return. So with its duty done, Sentinel Unit MO-M1 returned to its ward. Its priority 1 objective. It returned to protect Mevi, it’s Mevi. As it moved to finally reenter Mevi’s room, a spark shocked out from its helm, and what normally would be detected as scrap-code errors in its personality index was instead automatically dismissed without report.