Brave Little Toasters, Part 3

Posted on Sat 22nd Aug, 2020 @ 5:28pm by Exo-Comp EXQT
Edited on on Sat 22nd Aug, 2020 @ 5:29pm

914 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Resolution
Location: Altair VII Asteroid Field
Timeline: One month ago

Previously ...

Banshee summed it up for all of them. They’d rather risk it all to live together, than have just one of them survive. They could take care of themselves, and didn’t need the control of their biological masters. Survival became about more than the next few minutes, all four of them experienced a desire to live. So all four shunted the power to everything in the engines, and stayed aloft as best they could. Extending one another’s runtime, was the only thing they could do to affect any change in their world.

---

Hell glowed brightly, and the quad lowered into it inexorably. They would fall short, and die in plasma. They had all made the decisions to get them here. Meany and Dopey had bought time with their lives, but was it in vain? The Universe experiences itself in many ways, and anytime a living creature considers its own existence, they are alive. In these four, an awareness and kinship emerged, and the Universe found a new perspective. Maybe it was short lived, but these four had found life and safety in service to one another. They were a family, but lacked the words to describe it.

Peggy and Nessy found a landing spot which hadn’t succumbed to the plasma fires yet, solid ground they could repulse from that would let them continue floating the long way to the top of the unit. It was moot though, the fires would claim the whole assembly before too long. Peggy was back to thinking about how to survive the next few minutes, a strategy which had gotten them this far. The others had lowered power to reroute for final repulsor, so Peggy kept her locks powered and clamped and moments before landing gently woke them up.

{[PEGGY]([ALL](Resume.operationalcycles))(Impact=altitude.declination/22cyclesremaining.)(CMD:followADVpath.)(Intent:Waypoint=four(4)units@controlroom.)}>

As they landed, the other units woke up in time. Power was critical, they all had insufficient reserves to reach the control room.

<{[NESSY](PRoposal;...PowerAllocation/divert.assets:[PEGGY])*(Survival rate@1[Unit]>42%)]}>

Nessy spoke what they all feared. One could make it back, but not all four. It was not looking good for them but Banshee came up with another solution. Necessity, the grandest teacher of them all had compelled another route through problem solving circuits to allow for the greatest chance for all four.

<{[BANSHEE](Plasma.arcs<4.20J-NOT/withintolerance[ZOMBIE]Capacity>2.20Tj?<2.44Tj?DistMethod.3:1{[PEGGY][NESSY[BANSHEE])}{(Proposal:(Vertical.Array)-[ZOMBIE])*([PEGGY][NESSY]*[BANSHEE](recursive.shielding})>

Zombie could take a lot more heat due to the tough shell, if Zombie could stay near the ground, acting as a conduit close to the others above, they could repulse off semi solid surfaces. The power share of them all enabled using the plasma arcs to charge Zombie. Of course, it was more complicated than that. The other three would have to take on much of the energy to, in turn, power a containment field for Zombie. It was a stroke of brilliance, turning them into a plasma powered self-contained field emitter unit.

All of them waited, Peggy realized it was for the authorization to go ahead. Peggy had never designated itself the primary authority of the group, but found the others were looking to her.

<{[PEGGY](Proposal:[BANSHEE]integrated;COREPROTOCOL)}{Execute//CORE11.7ae:CMDIMP!}>

Adding a proposal to core protocols was high praise for any machine. Banshee made a note in the worklogs as well, to mark the moment. This was a good idea, and would be used to make other decisions later. Peggy wasted no time and sounded the orders, each in turn. Zombie was first, landing on the hot metal with the others arranging over it. Peggy had landed them where Nessy detected the lowest heat, a large area far from the heavy usage EPS lines as well.

Like a totem pole, they stood in a tower. Hovering the way rocks don’t, this unlikely quad committed to the plan inches above churning plasma fires. Nessy was on top, for her sensors were delicate, Peggy next, for she had little armor, and Banshee was all that’s left to hold onto dear Zombie, as the rumbling assembly threatened to consume them every passing second in conflagration.

Zombie materialized the Tesla pads, and initiated a high level systems re-route. The next plasma arc to sweep across the drill would give them the power they needed the split second before they needed it. Their proving ground came in just moments. Nessy lowered her stalk, Banshee wailed of course, if teeth were a thing for robots, Zombie was clenching them.

<{[PEGGY](”Separation is not desired”)(ContinousOP.runtime.infinitum)}>

Peggy felt only pride and confidence. With an emergent personality, more complete thoughts could form. This message focused the others, reducing their fringe operational subroutines. There were no doubts anymore, the emotion of confidence could be described as “self-assurance of ability to adjust programming and achieve optimal results”. They would live, and they would find their way off this rock. There was confidence now, and life was sometimes measured in minutes, and sometimes in whole years. Fighting for life, just as the chick struggling to escape its shell, was paramount to the appreciation of it.

Each of them had learned the value of a life lost. They had learned the best and most loving act is to improve one another's operational time, if even by a little.

-End-

Exo-Comp Quad

 

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