Chapter Text
This would be a better idea for a serial , I sent to ART. Scary evil SecUnits were so common they were really boring, at this point. A scary, evil ag-bot would be something new, and different. And arguably more plausible, if we used my own experiences as a statistical sample. (It depended on whether you counted the CombatSecUnit that had tried to murder me and Mensah, I guess. And my own mass-murder incident. Ok, maybe not actually more common. But still more original.)
You are within 2.4 meters of the reach of the growth stimulator arm , ART said. You might want to move more quickly.
That would have been annoying even if I wasn’t already running at my top velocity. Fuck off.
Right. So. Remember how I was planning on getting on that problem with the contaminated ag-bots? I really had been meaning to make a plan about that. And then one of the last groups of colonists to be evacuated (they were part of one of the dissenting groups, and had refused to negotiate until almost everyone else was off the planet, when they’d apparently realized that they were going to be all alone and that would be a pretty big fucking problem for them) had been cornered before they could get to the shuttle. While they were still in one of the secondary habitation sites. Which meant, underground.
At least nobody had tried to argue, much, when I’d just told ART to get me on a shuttle. I had two of the recall beacons with me this time, because even after all that time not making an actual plan , we didn’t have any better ideas. After all, we didn’t know that it wouldn’t work, especially not with my updated data on how fast the stupid fuckers could apparently move.
But even though the transponder would produce a relatively small explosion it was, still, an explosion, and none of us thought that it would be a good idea to set it off in an underground installation. Threat assessment agreed, giving a 55% chance that any deployment that successfully destroyed the ag-bot would also result in a collapse that would damage or trap me too, and a 20% chance that it would kill or trap the humans. So, I had the very sophisticated plan of luring the ag-bot up and out of the underground installation, then dropping the transponder, leading it over them, and trying to make sure that it didn’t just leap over them again and actually land on me this time. And, if that didn’t work but I wasn’t dead yet, trying again with the second set.
There were two other ways this plan was better this time. One, I’d actually agreed to wear Three’s armor, when it had offered again. (It was. Weird. I hadn’t worn armor in a long time. Putting it on had been an amazing relief, but also. Just. Weird.) Two, I’d brought Three. It wasn’t going to go after the ag-bot itself unless I got myself killed or something. Instead, it had waited out of sight until I’d lured the ag-bot away, and then had gone in to escort the trapped humans to the shuttle landing site. Even if it wasn’t actually helping directly with taking out the hostile, it was still a relief not to have to worry about the humans myself.
ART didn’t sound offended by being told to fuck off. Of course, it was used to that. Producing a fictional serial is very different from assembling a documentary.
Well, yeah, I knew that. Just like ART knew perfectly well that I wasn’t actually planning on writing a serial. I think it was jealous, actually, that it–Art-prime, it–hadn’t been involved in making our media at the separatist colony site. ART-drone had helped, of course, but while that was ART, it wasn’t quite the same. (ART-prime and I had watched it, together, after we’d gotten back, even though it had also uploaded the memory of ART-drone making it. Afterwards, it had told me that it was good, although it did also give me access to the file where it had listed potential improvements. (Maybe we’d take those into account if we made a new version to share with other people.) (Maybe.)
Anyway. The actual, current, potentially lethal situation was more important than editorial choices on transitions and exactly which parts of Tarik’s interview we included.
The first part of the plan had worked, and the ag-bot had abandoned the colonists and was now chasing me. (Hooray.) The map that we’d put together of this particular branch of the installation had been pretty complete, but I was still relieved to see the little square of light that meant the opening was ahead. It meant that the door had stayed open, too. I’d realized, about halfway between where I’d found the ag-bot and here, that I should have actually propped it open, instead of just leaving it and hoping it didn’t swing close. I didn’t exactly have time to stop and open it again, not with a hostile chasing me.
I made it out the door 1.8 seconds ahead of the ag-bot. I don’t like planets, especially this one, but it was still a relief to be above ground. We’d estimated that I needed to be at least a hundred meters from the opening before triggering the transponder, to be sure it didn’t cause structural damage. A hundred and twenty would be better.
I’d gained a little bit of distance at the door, when the ag-bot had needed to fold itself down to fit through, but now that we were out in the open and it could extend its limbs as far as they went, it was going to get faster. I made it a hundred and ten meters, and then dropped the first charge. Twelve meters after that, I dropped the next one. (Based on our analysis of the last one, ART and I thought that was about how far it was likely to be able to jump. If it did evade the first one, I thought/hoped it would come down on or near the second one.)
My drone had an estimate of its speed. I kept running, because I was about to set off an explosive and I’m not stupid, and set off the first transponder right before the ag-bot was supposed to be above it.
And it missed. It was still accelerating, apparently, taking much longer to get up to full speed than I’d anticipated, and my estimate was way off. It missed. Completely.
I didn’t have time to run another analysis, not when it was probably still accelerating and I didn’t know how fast. I set off the second one, and it was way too soon. And this time, I was pretty sure the ag-bot had noticed.
Dammit, Murderbot. Panicking and setting the weapon off early was the sort of thing a human would do. You’re supposed to be better than this.
At least I still had another set of transponders. I’d just have to hope that the ag-bot wouldn’t notice me dropping them and manage to avoid it again. At least my drone was telling me that its speed had stabilized, and that, although it was faster than me now that we were out in the open, I still had time to set up another attempt.
Would you like some help?
That time it wasn’t ART. I was used enough to Holism’s feed voice by now, since in addition to frequent pings, it had been talking to me on the feed at least twice per day-cycle. Mostly offers of information, or to explain information to me. Or sometimes to answer questions that were meant for ART.
I didn’t know what Holism meant, though. It didn’t have any security units, of course, and none of the humans on its crew who were supposed to be security were nearby.
ART hated it when Holism talked to me, and had especially hated it when I talked back to it. ART wasn’t the one being chased by an angry ag-bot. What did you have in mind?
Holism sent me a data packet that turned out to be the specs for an explosive missile of some kind. Uh, I’m a little busy here, I don’t exactly have the spare processing space or time to read technical specs. Still, the problem was obvious. It’s too fast, I can’t gain any more distance.
My armory is equipped for this type of application. Holism was broadcasting on a comm frequency that was accessible to everyone from the University’s team. So, yeah, ART could hear it too. I will control the detonation level. As long as you don’t lose more than two point seven meters of distance, you will be outside the primary impact area.
Risk assessment was telling me that trying the transponder trick again had a 66% success likelihood. Not very high. It would make ART very angry, if Holism saved me from maybe being torn in half by an evil ag-bot. Avoiding making ART angry wouldn’t be worth actually being torn in half. (ART maybe even deserved it. I was pretty sure it had just started making up comm protocols at this point.) I sent back, Go.
I spent the next 1.9 seconds focusing on my footing on the uneven terrain. I didn’t want to do something stupid like stumble, fall down, and end up in the radius of the blast. (If the missiles were as sophisticated as it sounded, Holism would have control over the detonation, and presumably if I was in range it wouldn’t set them off. So then I’d just have an angry ag-bot right on top of me, too close for anyone else to do anything about it. Tripping seemed like a really bad idea, basically.)
I didn’t fall down. Holism put a countdown of seconds until impact into the feed, and then I could feel the missile as it came into feed range just before impact.
I was outside the detonation area that Holism had defined, and I’d tuned down my hearing in anticipation. The explosion was still strong enough to knock me down, rolling me a couple of meters over the ground. That was probably actually a good thing, since fragments of ag-bot were now dispersing at high velocity. Even falling out of the way, I felt several shrapnel impacts, but none of them made it through the armor. (Which meant it was a good thing that I had taken it. This time. (I didn’t know if that made me feel better or worse about it))
That was too close, ART sent, while I was still using my drone to check behind me. Yep, call that a total kill on the ag-bot (at some point, I was going to have to actually take one of those things out myself, instead of just getting into trouble and being rescued by someone else.) SecUnit could have been badly harmed.
SecUnit sustained no significant damage. Holism sent ART the version of my status report that was available in my feed. (Ok, Holism was usually pretty good at pretending it wasn’t antagonizing ART, but that was a bit too obvious.)
May I share some of your status data ? ART asked me privately. I’d been doing better, since I’d been able to actually do my job for a little bit there, and since I realized what had happened with that fake memory, but ART had still been monitoring my status updates. Just in case.
I was pretty sure it just wanted to tell Holism about the 0.2% drop in my performance reliability. No.
I have more of that model of missile. Holism was talking to me, now (it had a different tone of voice, when it talked to me vs. talking to ART. With ART it always sounded detached, even when it wasn’t inventing comm protocols), but was still using the public feed where ART could hear us. I could spare a few, if you want them.
I’d never even had armed drones. Nobody in their right mind would give a SecUnit access to missiles . I don’t think I have the code for that.
You could , Holism said. You have sufficient processing capacity. I could teach you.
There it was, offering to teach me things again. And this time I probably couldn’t just pass it off to Three. As time went on Three was looking less and less likely to start making murder-focused choices, but I still didn’t want to arm it further, just yet.
It was a little bit tempting, though. If I had that style of missile, I could have taken out the ag-bot myself, as soon as I’d gotten it above ground. It would probably work against other SecUnits, or maybe even CombatUnits. Still. It’s not really how SecUnits fight.
You’ve done lots of unusual things for a SecUnit. Well, it wasn’t wrong there. I could help you with the code. I have footage of previous deployments, we could watch them together.
In our private feed, ART said, Stop talking to it.
It just saved me from an ag-bot . Which, yes, I had kind of complicated feelings about, but it still seemed rude to just stop talking to it right now.
Missiles are not the most practical option for you. Then ART sent me a data packet. When I opened it, it turned out to be specs for a style of drone I’d never seen before. It was only a little bit larger than my scouting drones, but it was armed with an adjustable energy weapon, which could be calibrated to give anything from a distracting and mildly painful jolt to disabling wounds. Like my built-in weapons, except even more versatile. The drone also had a small limb. It wouldn’t be able to do any heavy work, like maintenance drones did, but it would be able to do things like pick up very light objects, or trigger a hatch to open. And each one carried a small explosive charge that could be detonated with a secure feed command.
I’ve been perfecting the design , ART said, when it could tell that I’d finished reviewing it in the feed. Once we’re back at the University, I will be able to have them fabricated for testing.
ART had designed a drone. Just for me. I looked over the documentation again as I picked myself up off the ground. A quick check-in with Three showed that it had the humans waiting near the launch pad, and that the shuttle was 240 seconds out. Even if something else happened to them in the meantime, which seemed fairly unlikely, I wouldn’t be able to get to them any faster. So I just started walking back to the shuttle, on the other side of the installation.
Your shielding alloy increases the weight by 7% compared to standard materials. These would already be larger and heavier than any drones I’d used before, and I’d have to adjust my code for that.
Standard alloys would contain more of the force of the detonation, ART replied. The trade-off in increasing the payload to compensate would increase weight by 8% instead, as well as increasing construction costs.
Well, fine. Probably ART had run all the numbers already. I’d go through a lot of them, if I started exploding them.
You already go through a lot of drones. Ok, that had been true on this mission, but it wasn’t all my fault. They are more versatile than missiles, as they can be used for standard drone functions until you do need to use them as explosives.
Oh, right. Missiles. On the group feed, I told Holism, Thanks, but I don’t think I need them. On our private feed I told ART, If some of them had more space for processing power instead, and the limb was optimized to interface with system controls, I could hack through them. . .