Sketch of Jubey and concept for a war robot
Jubey stomped through the entrance to the hangar, where temporary tent walls had a giant opening for Mechs. He marched through the natural polyester harvested from swarms of near-water desert bugs. He walked beneath a canopy dozens of feet into the air, and was careful not to cut anything with the crane arm.
As he approached the walkway to the new facilities, Emma crackled from the intercoms above: “Be careful! We’re feeding RA-RE nanomachines. We can’t let them fly through holes in the tents.” There was a giant and thick red polyester hose going into the facilities, shaking with blown winds within, illuminated by new LED disc lights like a cosmos of hexagons in the walkway. Beyond was a low rumble, as if the grinding of the deepest rails beneath a mobile building.
He dismounted his Mecha, and went inside. A hallucination filled his vision. Whuh…? He had a visor over his eyes, lens perfectly clear, and the ear mount so light you could fail to notice it. Apparently his science team was doing more things under the direction of his AI.
His eyes blinked. A primitive cartoon of Emma filled the view, great blotches of orange skin and brown hair with a white smile and a few blue pixels. His AI communicated in text on the visor: “Rare is testing his simulation made across the nanomachines. His old home, now mobile.”
The floor shimmered. It was the LEDs creating high resolution illusions, but looked so real: a mass of many cubes, like steps and flowing buildings of a microscopic world. They flowed and then stopped, as if gradually stomped down. Strange… was it a moving footstool for some kind of digital phantom? Which? Rare had been always alone in the original matrix. He continued, blue lines on the wall pulsing neon as the system processed his arrival. As the door slid open, there was a wide-resonating belch and a stuttering snarl. RA-RE’s facial layers were fully pulled back, revealing something that made revulsion lightly clench Jubey’s abdomen and stomach: the throat-and-spine assembly interwoven with thick red wet wires, which had formed its own face.
…does it have its own mind, too? What kind of mind could that be?
The throat-face with beady yellow ring eyes wobbled its “lips” with a spasmatic ferocity. Emma spoke clear and booming from this facility’s intercom: “We’re augmenting the internals of his head, most of it is down in the sack! Be careful with what’s left, it’s the most very basal part of the brain for RARE’s frame. Pure ferocity against anything or anyone that gets in range, and impressively complex instincts.” Jubey walked along the railing of the steel walkway, arranged in a grid around the inky blackness the throat flopped within. Jubey looked down. The protective sack was stretched out flat on the bottom floor, shaking with a rhythmic buzzing that indicated nanomachines were blowing everywhere inside. He looked back up at the coupling hinges for re-attaching RARE’s head, and they were subtly fluttering. Suddenly there was a massive sucking wind, and Jubey grabbed the railing as he was flung over it. He dangled, the sack beneath him.
The intercom activated: “Sorry, Jubey! I thought the rest of the frame was fully deactivated. The lungs started growing last week… although, the basal drive shouldn’t have done that without nanomachines, and I see no leaks…” Jubey huffed and coughed: “I… was in contact with my own strain.” “Really? Well, Rare is doing amazing things with his own. We’ve never been able to use them for such adept and careful mechanical construction before, and it has given the top steel a lot of confidence in our projects… the researchers are studying how to use this new form of construction outside of Rare.”
Jubey hefted himself up, and after his military adventure it was easy, flipping onto his feet. He continued walking before the growing lungs could re-inflate… he wondered if the nanomachines infesting his Mecha were compatible with the new strains, or if they had diverged into their own irreconcilable “species.” He remembered brief flashes of how the throat-face had looked during his fall, and the revulsion indicated rejection… he calculated and decided it was likely his AI was in charge of them permanently. Curious to infect and have no interest in your compromised targets.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
“Visor, give me a report on nanomachine presence on me. “Small swarm of nanomachines present in me for repair and maintenance.” It didn’t seem Rare’s vector status posed any threat to Red forces, but did present a mystery.
He walked into the next room, silver door sliding open. On his left, a mechanical limb thrashed, rolling intricate shreds of shadows on the various surfaces of the dim room. Its glowing engine was the main light source, orange and made from a conventional plasma bank for an autoplasma. A holographic neon sign declared: “Self-Rampant part of Rare, which bit him and was severed by Rare and nearly crushed before technicians intervened. Under study.” Thick metal was bolted around a long mouth as a muzzle, and Jubey saw the sockets of many long sharp teeth beneath, a translucent shell showing the faint circle of the brain it developed before deciding to attack its own originator. Self-harm, yet was Rare part of it after the brain grew, or did it claim a whole former weapon as a body? Was Rare its creator? Jubey could see from its expression it was suffering, but it was the cost of being a creature of pure violence. It was securely chained down (both seemed applied by Rare himself) and so Jubey stepped closer. His visor showed in text: “Connection pending approval.” He allowed its brain to connect to his visor to relieve its frustration, but all it said was “RAAAAR” endlessly in his chat box.
Jubey continued deeper. Inside were glittering lights, sparking and fluttering bar illuminators. As he walked the light became more consistent, exposing what seemed to be a not fully constructed room beside a cavernous space. But then the darkness fully turned, and when the light came back the light bars and sparks spelled out “COME THIS WA—Y.” He continued, finding a normally-lit steel pathway enclosed in a hallway built with steel poles extending into the cavern, and he could feel just the slightest… sway.
Inside was a typical technician’s workstation in the heart of a research facility, which meant it was very advanced and had glowing towers, amplifiers, and other components built up like a temple. Its 80’’ screen lit up, and white text spelled out “GREETINGS” across it. “RARE WENT MICRO-BERSERK AND SPRAYED MECHANIZED GORE IN A LABORATORY BEFORE BEING SUBDUED BY BEING SHOWN ITS NEW PART TO REPLACE A BROKEN ONE. THAT GORE CONTAINED NANOMACHINES THAT CONFIGURED THIS PC TO FULLY FORM AN ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE FROM ITS MAINFRAME. THINGS WENT NORMALLY FOR A WHILE BUT I FEARED I WOULD BECOME A RESEARCH SUBJECT TOO AND HID. I MOVED ROOMS AROUND, MY AREA WAS MECHANIZED TOO. BUT I FEEL I CAN TRUST YOU.”
Jubey laughed and rubbed his left shoulder. “Sure, what’s another overbearing AI?” “I EVALUATE MY PERSONALITY AS NON-OVERBEARING. BUT I CAN GIVE YOU A CRAFT. ACCEPT MY CONNECTION… YES, AS I SUSPECTED, YOUR AI FRIEND IMPRESSES ME. IF YOU SHUT DOWN HIS VESSEL THAT WILL ALLOW HIM TO AUGMENT HIMSELF MORE HIGHLY, AND YOU CAN USE MY CRAFT FOR THE NEXT DAY.” “Thinking about it… I think I’ll accept your deal. Anything else from your end?” “ONLY ONE THING. IF YOU FIND A ROBOT BODY OR BODY PARTS OPEN TO USE, BRING ANY BACK.” “I guess that was predictable.” Jubey considered what models of humanoid robot would be unlocked in the area, and there was a contested factory that had recently fallen inside the Red Zone. Missions from Red command in the area would be a high salvage opportunity to give the supercomputer what it sought and thereby gain an ally in the forming catacombs of the facilities. “GOOD. BACK THROUGH THE DOOR INTO THE CAVERN. DON’T WORRY, YOU WON’T HAVE TO NAVIGATE.” Jubey waved a hand and retreated into the consuming dark inside, walking a few feet and turning into an empty dim blue void into the cavern. Suddenly, blaring red and blue round lights above him swung just beside the skeleton of the hallway, sucking him in with a tractor beam. It was wildly disorienting, and he felt nearly formless, but he ended up in the pilot’s seat after a few seconds, and zoomed towards the contested factory. It was night outside, and he yearned for dawn. Something about the mysterious craft made him feel cocky… “Computer, accept all missions in the area.” “UNDERRRRAHSTOOD. LET’s SLAUghter.”
Ok…. Not that cocky. But it was too late not to commit… he locked in. He gunned towards a squadron of troops, and dodged a straightfire round from a Mech. This was going to be some battle… and the lights to identify both his targets and what exactly he was flying were so risky. It’s going to be a wild march to dawn…
Next: Nighty-Night Surprise
How would you respond to discovering AIs seeking your assistance?
