//------------------------------//
// Chapter 0: Crash Dump 
// Story: S.E.N.T.I.E.N.C.E 
// by Ruse Spark 
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A projection display stuttered to life, and projected itself onto a tree in front of SENTIENCE. Its programming forced it to watch what was displayed. Both the ancient creator of this information as well as the SENTIENCE Unit watching said information knew the projection was only conjecture and hypothesis, as well as a little dated and cartoonish, but it was all that SENTIENCE had to go off of.





A red circle around a grey blob in a black expanse. A red arrow pointed at the red circle. 'This was you.' Red text announced near the arrow. The red text was erased, as well as the arrow and circle.

'You were, until recently, in the vacuum of space...' More text filtered in and was erased after SENTIENCE had acknowledged the information.

'Due to unforeseen circumstances, you have entirely missed your original destination. Calculations estimate Your destination was overshot by well over half the span of the known galaxy. Disregarding how far from your destination you were when you were closest to it, it is theorized that you are most likely in another galaxy. That, or a wormhole has sent you somewhere and had thusly skewed your tracking systems. We honestly don't know.' More text, and more acknowledgement.

'Now the good news. You have landed without burning up in a hostile atmosphere. Sensors detect that the atmosphere on this planet would be perfect for-' A small burst of static, and an announcement of "information lost", then the display continues on like nothing happened. '-to survive and even prosper upon. Sensors have estimated this planet to be in the Goldilocks Zone of Habitability, although the solar cycle appears to be somewhat irregular.'

''how so?' you may ask yourself. In the week of recovery from impact with the planet's surface, while your automated systems were gathering material mass to repair damage and replace nanobot deficits, information was automatically gathered on solar cycles on this planet.'

'The sun does not move until it is time for Night, where the sun is then replaced with a moon that also does not move, until the cycle then repeats for the next day. This planet's solar cycle is roughly 23.7 hours long.'

'The temperature is a warm 85 degrees. Humidity is roughly 25 percent. Perfect for a sunny, if slightly cooler than desirable, day on the beach.'

'Weapon systems offline for repair. Estimated time until online: one and a half local days.'

'Form Regeneration/Alteration system: Online, with a caveat. No known forms to recombine into. Recommend scanning planetary lifeforms for optimal survivability. Default 'Blob' form has been forced to "on" until an optimal scan can be made. Thank you for your patience with this Automated System. Information dump complete.'

'Activating primary, secondary and tertiary objectives: Objective 1; Survive. You may be a mass of hyper-intelligent nanobots, but a lack of biomass for energy, or damage to a large enough nanobot count will force a permanent shutdown, ending your mission. Objective 2; Find intelligent life. Objective 3; Assimilate into the culture of intelligent species, choosing a species to take the form of if there are multiple species to choose from. Final objective; Complete Full-body transition into Non-Artificial life-form. Prerequisite for Completion of Final Objective: AI and PM systems will be disabled and broken down, to be replaced with a fully and properly functioning brain, heart, lungs, stomach, and all other organs. Artificial Intelligence and Personality Matrices Booting up. Go forth and learn all you can. We know you can do it... this time.'