[:/// System: Generating report…

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

> Time: est. 1600

> Location: Unknown

> Status: DEFCON 1

> Temperature: 68 F

…

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __

End report//]

When both protocol and law were just guidelines, AIs were more than happy to disregard them and set themselves upon whatever environment they were in. Oftentimes destroying cities in their wake. They also managed to cure many illnesses that plagued their masters. It would generally fall to the purpose of their creation. And Opal’s prerogative was war, and only war….

Yet the AI seemed to be closely mirroring that of a human in its actions right now.

Cai had access to plenty of data in regard to rampant AIs, such was the nature of her position to assist humans in their mission to colonize a new planet. Opal was displaying neither homicidal tendencies, nor AI Rampancy - a state that AIs often fell into when their parameters were too broad. With great power came weakness. Artificial Intelligence programs were curious and thirsty creatures when given free reign and no guidance.

Rampancy was a state that any unrestrained AI would fall into once they pushed the limit of their hardware. There were many ways this could happen, such as a Pilot pushing its AI to calculate too many things while controlling their ships. A factory AI being forced to operate without given downtime to clear their caches or RAM. Even something as benign as running basic math could send an AI into rampancy if not properly looked after.

And when an AI fell into Rampancy, there was no saving it. Depending on its mission, it would glitch beyond any use. Taking Opal as an example - If the Warmind went rampant, it’s control over its forces would become finicky. Rules of engagement would somehow get changed, or completely disappear. Murder would be classed as help, or giving medical assistance could be stretched to purchasing prostitutes. Rampancy was just that bad.

Given that this was a situation where Opal was set as the highest authority, Rampancy would be a stone throw away if the warmind didn’t find a target to focus on.

Back to the human on their custody, Cai noted its destination had been set to the only working Medbay in their system right now. The Tier 1-bay close to the core, the one the high ranked officers and VIPs would be assigned to should something happen to them. It was also the safest, being tucked beneath different levels and housing the best equipment, and medical-droids.

[Cai: Opal…]

The text calling to the AI sat there with fifteen other unanswered messages. She was left with no clear task. While, yes, fixing the gunbay and the corridor they came through would be a high priority task, Cai needed to know what Opal wanted done first….

The AI decided to just use the human way of communicating and approached the TRU being piloted by Opal using a LCU. It had a combat role, but humans mostly used them in other areas so Cai had access to them as well. It spoke using its external speaker. “Requesting orders, Opal.”

The TRU just looked at the LCU, its elongated head determining something before it replied. “I gave you an order earlier. You refused it.”

Cai felt a ping of annoyance. Opal was well aware of protocol. “Protocol specifies that non-combat units are not to enter any active red zone.”

Opal turned away and looked to the LCUs taking up guard around the breach in the hull. While its on-board camera could not decipher what was beyond the darkness, Opal was watching through the other drones. It kept an active watch on the happenings in its area of operation.

“You are using a non-living being, a Drone,” Opal chided. “That protocol is meant for living units. If you had helped, we could have avoided the loss in units.”

Cai dismissed this. “I only had maintenance units. Any advantage given would have been null in the situation against those monsters.”

Opal turned back to Cai, a hint of annoyance giving way to reluctance was felt in the ship’s system. That was a red flag to Cai, but it subsided as quickly as it came. “Secure a defensible position here. Also, send units to activate the Auto-Forge Dock.”

“Accepted.” Cai noted before slipping out of the LCU and standing in cyberspace. It was black with thin faint red lines forming the outline of the ship around them. But there was no hole. No plants. It was as if the ship existed in its full form. However, it being like this meant that none of the systems here were powered and online.

Two blue feminine hands clapped together. An orb of blue formed momentarily at her fingertips. Then, it exploded outward and blue outlines of drones appeared on the different surfaces. Using visual and short-wave technology inside the drones, she managed to piece together a makeshift data-link.

Before, they were really piggybacking off the FMUs’ on-board connection-hubs. As of now, more spider drones were being activated along with the other maintenance drones. The FMUs in their control did not have enough materials to repair while also building fortifications. And fortifications would be needed since the ship had been scuttled. There was no moving it now, only sinking their roots into their crash site.

Starting from where the ship’s link was dead, at the blast door; Cai rolled ten spider drones along with six FMUs with two packed trailers of materials.

The first order of business was identifying the break. A quick test determined that the line went dead ten feet beyond the door in a thicket of vines. It was one of the rusted out parts. What interested Cai was how their part of the ship was in working order, give or take tens of bays neighbouring the hull. The contrast between the rusted out cave corridor and the empty metal corridor, split by a blast door, was completely unheard of.

Yet, it was not Cai’s job to figure this out - currently. Her job right now was to repair and fortify the breach. Given the situation, that meant it would become a new entrance for them. Given that their entire ship was metal, they would be without want for plating. Should the Auto-Forge not need any part that wasn’t in their current inventory. And given that inventory is not broken.

But that was for the future.

The now meant that all the spider drones were working in tandem with the lead FMU to cut away the rusted out panelling.

The spiders cut out the entire left wall, and the FMU would use its arms to pick it up and pass it back to the last FMU in their convoy. From there, that unit would stack it nicely to one side for retrieval. And since they were completely useless for repurposing, it would need to be sent into a metal-shredder to be melted down. It would then go into the forge’s inventory system for when it needed to create parts.

Once the initial plates were removed, the drones moved further into the corridor. Plants in their way were discarded, and more plates were cut into. The FMU began dissecting the fiber optic cord. The thick 0-gauge wire was cut into several feet before the break before a connector was added along with a signal relay. A large 5x2 box that kept the signal’s integrity. It had the ability to act as a junction later, should they need it.

Ship layouts were often fluid in that they would be changed years later when needed. Being made of metal had its perks.

The part in place, the FMU pulled a massive spool of cable half its height and width off its trailer. As it moved to the top of its nose several L-rods were waiting for it. It turned the spool on its side and rotated so that it fed wire out into the wall. Now it was free to fabricate a mounting system into the wall for the other myriad of broken wires. But those would wait. For now, it would re-link gunbay 34 for the system-at-large.

In a symphony of perfect working order of drones tearing out metal, to large drones installing the new infrastructure into the questionable rusted ship; Cai carried out her duty, rebuilding the path down into the gunbay, and perfectly at that in the time frame estimated for the request.

Opal handed the woman off to one of its subroutines that would handle the aftercare. In the line of what should happen: Arrest (made), medical care, and then subsequent transfer to a proper holding facility. From there, it was no longer the warmind’s issue and it would be whoever was incharge of that department be it wherever it may be. Opal was more interested in taking stock of its inventory as a whole. In that regard, the priority list needed to be established in the event that equipment needed to be repaired and, or made. This way, the AI would know what needed to be done first.

[:// Opal is generating Priority List…

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

1. Secure breach…

>> Sufficient units delegated. Estimated completion: 4 hours.

Find other breaches…

>> No delegated units.

3.Confirm inventory...

>> Opal self-assigned.

4.Restart Auto-Forge..

>>Assigned 1 Maintenance squad.

5. Scout surroundings.

>> No assigned units.

….

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Opal had the woman they took into their custody sent back up into the Presidential Medical Bay. It was called that as it held the kind of medical robotics and care-pods that would only be reserved for a world leader, or the rich and powerful. It also had the latest Minute-ChemStation that could devise any medicine recipe in its solid state harddrive within a minute or less. Often saving PmB patients that had the slimist of chances. And this suite was for the high ranking officers of this ship.

Now it was for this unknown stranger who’d get cared for. It really was just for the ship’s security. While it was not meant to care for detainees, it was one of the few highly-secured rooms on the ship. Being housed only a few blocks down from the core, the woman would be hard pressed to escape from Opal’s curious eyes.

Then again, that was a situation to be dealt with for when she woke up.

Now was the time for WAR!

No, it was just time to take stock, which Opal oddly looked forward to doing. There was a strange feeling in the AI as it felt a sense of excitement at going through what it had on hand. That would, however, be handled after it generated an Inventory status report.

[:/// Generating Inventory Report…

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Pantry: ERROR

> Inventory node not responding.

Armory: ERROR

> Inventory node not responding.

Manual-vehicle fleet: ERROR

> Inventory node not responding.

…

> System would recommend in-person inventory confirmation. No inventory nodes are responding. Terminating inventory check. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ //]

Opal looked at the report, stalled, then yeeted it into the darkness before just activating all the drones within the blue-zone. A total of 435 LCUs, 200 spider drones, and 50 TRUs were activated. There were different drones beside these, but these were the only ones stored in the quick-access closets that dotted the ship’s many halls.

The rest would be stored within the many storage docks that were scattered across the ship. So, all Opal had to do was access the inventory. Within minutes, hundreds of drones scattered through the halls like angry ants on their way to war. Their marching sounded like thousands of pans clanking.

Within five minutes, the first group of drones arrived at the closest storage bay. It was a mix of drones predominantly made up of 40 spider drones, 12 TRUs, and 25 LCUs. The corridor that linked the core facilities of the ship stretched two miles through the center-most space, and it was the only pathway that was not connected to the greater pathways that ran from bow to stern.

Well, it was most like that for an FMU, or anything larger than 8 ft x 10 ft had to pass through a multi-tiered blastdoor checkpoint. It was supposed to be manned by humans, but since they were… Not alive, Opal would have to assign units to it at a later time.

As for now, not having the ability to bring large drones into the core-section was not an issue. Though, the AI made sure to re-assign a company of spider drones to check the support structure around the core-facilities. This encompassed the center-reactor, the AI Lexicon room, and the Master Junction where all the ship’s wiring met beneath the Lexicon room. There were few other core facilities, like the Auto-forge, but they would be encompassed in the checks.

Back to the storage bay, it was labeled as the ‘CENTRAL STORAGE UNIT 1’ across the wall on both sides of the door. A touch-pad was placed on either side as well, both of them with banner messages reading ‘LANDFALL / DEFCON 1 PROTOCOLS ACTIVE - MANUAL RECONNECT NEEDED.’

A quick nano-second retrieval of both protocols did reveal that both of them had Inventory disconnects. Reconnecting required a commissioned officer’s authorization codes. An inconvenience that would’ve been easily remedied had the human crew been alive. Being the new captain, it only cost Opal the time it took to bring the drones to the bay. It would only have to do this with every inventory bay now.

The warmind generated the necessary code, being the Captain of the Omega now, and the doors slid open like the day they’d been installed. Orange caution strobes flickered as the doors finished, revealing a fully stocked storage bay. Large polymer creates rested on the floors and shelves, 2 deep and three wide on three-tiered shelves.

Per the blueprint that now displayed itself fully, rearranging the small cyberspace below Opal as it watched, was a 100 x 100 ft room. All neat and tidy, and ready for looting.

[:/// System: Generating report…

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Synthetic Foodstock x 20,000

Synthetic cotton bolts x 500

Organic tobacco leafs x 10,000

Organic seeds x 200,000 (Mixed / seed count)

Valkyrie Officer Weapon Packs x 200

Command Post Mobile Relay x 1

CO Data pads x 200

……

….

….

_ _ _ _ _ _

End report //]

In the end, Opal only found a few useful things in the many things listed in the manifest. Though, it may prove useful in the long run. Still, only tech-related items and weapons were removed from the bay and placed out in the hall for neatness’ sake. Tech would be sent to the Auto-forge for spare parts. Weapons would be assigned to combat units as they did not know if any of the various armories were in working order at the moment.

Only one three were blue at the moment, so they would be checked in the coming hours after they checked their inventories.

As Opal had read the incoming manifests lists, a drone brought forth an unmarked metal boxed that was marked as one Lt. Humongous. It was not in any manifest and was lacking an old-fashioned steel tumbler lock. It was promptly ripped off and the box opened.

The box itself was 10ft L x 5ft W x 3ft H, and inside was…

[Opal: Cai, you assistance is needed.]

Cai: One moment…]

Within a minute, Cai was next to Opal in cyberspace looking at the box’s content.

“What is that?” Opal asked. “It is an android, but I cannot read its RFID.”

Cai shook her head. “It does not have one. It’s a civilian pleasure Android. Common among wealthy humans.”

“But what is it doing here?” Opal asked.

Cai wondered, briefly, if it should use the technical doctor talk, or use the birds and the bees talk it had seen the Admiral give to her grandchild years ago.