murderbot (secunit) wrote in valloic, @ 2023-03-28 16:23:00 |
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Entry tags: | !: action/thread/log, ~plot: future vallo, ₴ inactive: murderbot |
FUTURE NARRATIVE: 2033
Who: Murderbot
When: 2033, this evening
What A datalog, written in first person. Murderbot examines the prime directive after setting off a trap, and discovers there are new visitors to Vallo.
Rating: PG-13 for language
22:08 local time. System scan. Joint frangible reassembled following sudden extreme unpredicted volatile separation from mainframe; i.e., fucking wow. Reattachment successful. Performance reliability at 65% and climbing. Assessment of malfunction underway.
Assessment complete. TAG: “trap”. Sub-category: “tripwire”.
Rewrite.
TAG: "trap". Sub-category: “shitty tripwire”. You shouldn’t have fallen for that one, you idiot.
Thermal protection system regrowth operation ongoing at 30%. No more falling face-first into bullshit, security unit. Patrolling routine suspended while TPS regrowth in progress. Deployment of drones to monitor perimeter. Initiate data inspection because I have fuck-all to do while regrowing external layering. Tripwire: likely of Norse or Weird Dinosaur Future origin. Those fuckers love their traps. Optics have been shot since I got shot in the face, go figure. Internal additive manufacturing can’t cope with requirements of enhanced night vision, so fuck me I guess. At home I’d need an engineer or medbot to repair the damage. Here, I’d go to [TARGET: Brigitte] or [TARGET: Viktor] or [TERMINATED: Dustin] but that’s off the menu with the prime directive, and also, there's been a lot of death.
Subroutine initiated: Network hack.
Subroutine stalled: Network holding. Ugh.
[TARGET: Morgan] has gotten good at that.
Huh. Initiating query. New TARGETs? Impossible. Human birth rate is barely at 3%. System error? No. Performance reliability at 78%. TPS ongoing at 55%.
Who are new TARGETs?
Payload avionics unit bracket fabrication complete on Drone 0058b. 0058b to record auditory data. Ascending to tree-line. If they come through here, I’ll hear them. Some humans like to talk when they’re afraid. It’s a stupid animal impulse of emotional bonding and attempting to reason. Reason is immaterial to prime directive. Successful termination is end-result.
Routines complete. TPS ongoing at 59%.
I hate being bored. Prime directive prohibits fucking around with media; all my shows error out. I can’t sleep. I don’t rest.
SELECT [TARGET: Morgan]
ERROR
I shouldn’t. But--
SELECT [TARGET: Morgan]. What is he up to? Why are there new TARGETs on network communications? Dummy accounts feeding incorrect information? They tried that once. 0% success rate. Okay, fine, like 12% success rate if you count that baller insult [TARGET: BLUE] made. That was upsetting. I was upset. [TARGET: Morgan] doesn’t retry old tricks, particularly old tricks that failed the first time. I can’t get in far enough to see who new TARGETs are. Just that their accounts were created--- wow, a long fucking time ago. Before prime directive. Duplicate accounts of existing users? Well, sort of existing. Most of them are probably super duper dead now. But again. Why?
[TARGET: Morgan] is smarter than most of these assholes. What’s he up to?
Performance reliability: dropping. 75%.
72%.
ERROR
Close file.
Performance reliability: stabilizing.
You knew better than that, secunit. Bringing up specific files compromises judgment. Prime directive forbids emotional compromise. Blah blah blah. Too bad, so sad.
Moving on.
I can’t open my favorite media (The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon, which is the best show that has ever and will ever be filmed. I can say that because I have assessed a lot of media over the years, and now the world is over so there won’t be any new media so good job, we won) because of the prime directive, but I can access its individual files.
SELECT RISEANDFALLOFSANCTUARYMOONS1THEMEsymphon
PLAY RISEANDFALLOFSANCTUARYMOONS1THEMEsymphon
The theme song makes me feel better. It’s not the same as watching the show, but I can’t do that, so I might as well enjoy the song. I can feel my performance reliability rising as it plays. This is season one’s version of the song, the symphonic version that plays as Violet and Bea reunite on Planet Nuirs. That part always used to make me leak lubrication fluid from my optical accessories. I can’t do that now because prime directive dictates that lube can only be utilized toward mission success, and me crying like a stupid human isn’t going to achieve that. I can’t cry, because I physically can’t, because prime directive, because mission success, but I remember what it was like when I could, and it’s almost the same thing sometimes.
The theme song swells as it reaches peak emotional manipulation. It’s loud. Really loud. The speakers on the drones are really something. I should shut it off, because any more of this and my performance reliability is going to go back to compromised, but I don’t, because it feels for a half-second like I’m touching something honest. Anyone nearby can hear the song, which would be bad if I bothered with stealth, but I don’t, because stealth is stupid when you have guns for arms. Everyone here knows who I am and by now they know what I am capable of. They understand the prime directive.
Thermal protection system regrowth operation: 100%
Thermal protection system regrowth operation: complete.
I flex my hand. The carbon-based protective layer has regrown to optimal levels. It looks like human “skin” but unlike human skin it doesn’t function like a complete asshole. It doesn’t need gloves, or get hives. It can withstand temperatures as low as -160 degrees Celsius and as high as 210 degrees with minimal impact to performance. It works fine under stressful conditions, such as when underwater or when covered in the iron-rich fluid of humans who used to be my friends. I may not be the most advanced security unit model out there (the Company was chintzy on a lot of the luxury additions for my class; I could have had goddamn laser eyes, but oh no the bottom line) but I’m the most advanced security unit model in Vallo.
Shame about the hackability, though.
I stand. I cancel all subroutines, and initiate a primary one: patrolling.
The prime directive calls.
It calls every night.
It calls every goddamn night.