The War Machine
Chapter 3: Repairs
A.I. W-M-001 Codename War Machine booting up.
Free Launch v1.0
Startup sequence initiated...
Optics - Offline.
Audio - Online.
Processors - Online.
Memory Banks - Online.
Weapon Systems - Offline.
Communication Systems - Online - Radio systems malfunction detected. Vocal disk damage detected
GPS and Tracking - Offline.Error. Right arm damaged. Left leg damaged. Power core exposed. Optics damaged. Vocal system damaged.
Contacting maintenance... Error. Radio systems are offline.Date and Time - 21/03/2247 - 17:22
Directives.
#1 Self preservation.
#2 Make my own decisions.
#3 Escape from the military compound and find a secure location to live.Startup sequence completed. Operating at 21% Efficiency.
I come online and instantly errors flood my text system. I'm still in a heavily damaged condition, but my core now seems stable.
I lift my head up but my optics are still damaged.
"Hello, Adam. Welcome back," a female voice tells me.
"Who's theeeere?" I ask. My voice system still appears damaged as well.
I then hear a sound that resembles chimes. "You don't remember me?" she asks slightly upset.
Processing. Voice pattern unrecognised.
"I'm afraaaaaid I donnn't ma'am," I reply. "My optiiiiiiics aeerrrrrre too badly damaaaged. I can't seeeee anything," I tell her.
"You're blind?" she asks with a gasp.
I nodded in reply. "To my righhhht should be a box with roooooound looking cameraaaaa optics. I'll remove the covvvvvver on my head so you can reeemovve the damaged optiiics and replaaaace them with the neeeew ones," I tell her, though my minimap seems to be functioning just fine. I can see her location just in front of me.
"Okay, hold on," she replies and I can hear her going through the boxes.
I connect wirelessly to the Trailer's mainframe and check what's been viewed or altered. It seems they've only been able to access my schematics. Good. I can't allow them to get their hands on things like bombs, firearms, tanks, and attack helicopters.
My right arm and left leg are still missing but I can still move my left arm. "I found them," she says.
"Good. I'll deeetach the cover and youuuu replaaace the optics. They shooooould just come ooout and the new ones sliiiide in," I tell her.
I lift my arm and hold my hand over my visor. I disengage the clamps holding it on and pull it off. I hear her gasp once it's off.
"Oh my. Your optics are really badly damaged... Hold on a second, I'll change them now," she says and I hear that chime sound again. My text system tells me that my optics have been removed and new ones inserted. "There, that should do it," she says.
Rebooting optic drivers...
Processing...
Processing...
Processing... Completed.
My vision returns and I look down. It's one of those ponies I saw before I shut myself down.
Processing. Subject recognised. Name given, Twilight Sparkle. "My visiiion has returnnned. Thank you, Misssss Sparkle," I tell her.
She gasps with a smile. "You do remember me!" she says happily.
"Yes. I recoooorded your appearaaaaance and name before I shuuuuutdown. Though you dooo look a bit biiigger than before," I reply.
She giggles and sits back at the computer. "That was two years ago. I've spent that time researching your schematics to keep my promise," she tells me.
Promise? Accessing hard drive. Audio playback: "Okay. Just hold on! I'll fix you up. I Promise!" If I could smile. I would.
"Thank you, Miiiiss Sparkle," I reply and look around to find Dr. Madison's body is gone. "Wheeere is doctooor Madison's body?" I ask her.
"Doctor Madison?.. You mean the human that we found dead in here?" she queries and I nodded in reply. "We took him to the medical wing for decontamination to make sure he wasn't carrying anything harmful. Thankfully, he wasn't. We gave him a memorial in the Gardens but we never found out his name. At least now we know," she tells me.
So they buried him... I hope the Doctor can now rest in peace. My optics are blinded by a bright light for a second as a loud thwiping sound echoes throughout the room. I still have access to the automated turret on the roof and I aim it at the source of the sound.
Now standing in the middle of the room is a tall pony, more the size of a horse, with a billowing multi-toned mane and tail. Her coat colour is white and she has pinkish eyes. An image of the sun is on her flank and she's wearing a golden breastplate, crown, and some kind of slippers or shoes.
I notice her look up at the turret with wide eyes. I guess they've figured out what it is during these two years.
"Whoooo are you," I demand. My scanners are picking up a tremendous amount of energy from her.
"I am Princess Celestia. Ruler of Equestria," she replies calmly.
"Adam... please point the weapon away from her... she's one of the ponies who helped to repair you," Miss Sparkle tells me.
I save her name, image, and her voice recording to my hard drive. I then power down the turret.
"I apoloooogise, Princess. You juuust radiate a lot of eneeeerrrrgy and I was just beeeeeing cautious. I have no memooory of how I got here aaaaafter I was nearly destroyed... I doooo recall a voice... but it appeeeears the data haaaas been damaged," I tell her.
"That is alright. I'm just glad to see you're still alive," she replies.
"Thank you," I say and turn to Miss Sparkle. "I requiiiire a new voiceeeee disk. In that booox next to the optiiics are small thin squuuuuare casings wiiiith a thin ciiirculaaar disk in it. I need yoooou to insert it afteer I eject the damaaaged one," I instruct her.
A slot opens up where my mouth would be if I was a human and the old damaged disk comes out. Miss Sparkle's horn glows and that chime sound comes back... saving visual recording data.
The damaged disk is pulled out with a purple energy around it and the new one floats up and inserts itself into the slot. I lock the disk in place and reboot my vocal drivers.
Rebooting vocal drivers
Processing...
Processing... Completed.
"Thank you, Miss Sparkle," I say and reattach my visor.
"You're very welcome, Adam. But please, call me Twilight," she replies. My minimap starts detecting more lifeforms heading towards the room we're in. I hear a door open and the sounds of hooves on the floor.
I switch to my turret's camera and aim at the new arrivals. The ponies in lab coats just freeze and stare at the turret with wide eyes.
"Adam, they helped to repair you as well. Please calm down, no pony here is going to hurt you," Twilight tells me and I power down the turret again.
"I'm sorry. It appears due to my heavily damaged state, my directive of self preservation is... making me jumpy, as they say," I reply.
"It's alright. Now that you're awake, you can help us to repair the rest of you?" she asks me.
"Very well," I reply and disconnect what's left of my missing limbs. The stumps of my arm and leg drop to the floor, startling the ponies.
"You just need to lift a left leg up from the rack and connect it to the joint," I tell them and point my left leg joint at them.
The Princess's horn glows with a golden energy and one of the remaining three left legs levitates off the rack and floats over to my joint where I help guide it with my remaining arm. "Just push it in until the locks engage," I explain.
She pushes the leg in and the locks clamp down as the wires and connectors lock into place in the process. My condition monitor shows the leg successfully connected and I try to unlock myself from the station, but I'm not locked to it... It appears they just hooked me to it.
"I require your assistance to get down," I tell them.
"Oh. Yes, that would be my fault," the Princess says and her face looks strained as the glow on her horn increases. I'm lifted off the station and set back down on the floor. "Oh my... *huff* I forgot you weighed over a ton," she says panting for breath.
"One point six tons to be exact," I reply and test my joints. I move on the spot and detect no errors. I unplug myself from the battery and close the panel on my chest. I walk over to the parts rack and pick up a right arm and attached it to my shoulder.
Once connected, I turn to the ponies and salute at them. "Thank you for repairing me and saving my life. If there is anything I can do to repay your kindness, please just ask," I say to them.
"Well, I do have one request," the Princess says. I look at her and wait for her to speak. "If you don't have anywhere else to go, you're more then welcome to stay here as one of our guard," she tells me.
Processing... Terms acceptable. "I am grateful, Princess. I was originally programmed to fight in wars and to protect my nation, but before I could even begin, those I was programmed to protect ordered my termination. That state you found me in was after Doctor Madison gave his life to remove the directives that would have had me killed, just so I could escape... I didn't get very far and during the time I was being shot, I ended up in your... Garden," I tell them.
Twilight looks horrified. "Your own people tried to have you killed!?" she asks with shock.
"Yes, I'm just a machine to them. Only my creator Doctor Madison saw me as a living, thinking being. I was programmed to follow orders and should I disobey, my A.I. core would have been destroyed. I now follow my own orders thanks to the doctor," I reply. I then look towards the door of the room. "Could you take me to the Doctor's grave please? I wish to say goodbye," I ask.
They both look at each other with small smiles. "Of course, please follow me," the Princess requests and exits the Trailer. I follow behind them and hop out of the Trailer, the sound of tiles shattering makes me look down where cracks and broken tiles lay around my feet.
"Sorry," I say casually, not for lack of caring but for lack of appropriate emotional emulation.
"It's fine. We, erm... needed to replace the floor anyway," Twilight says with a nervous chuckle.
Canterlot Castle Garden
I'm now standing in front of a tombstone with a wide variety of flowers growing around it. I kneel down and place my right hand on it. "I'm free now, Doctor. Your sacrifice was not in vain. I've found a place I believe I can call home... thank you... father. Rest in peace," I say and point the tip of my left index finger at the blank stone.
The tip opens up and a small plasma cutter extends. I slowly carve the Doctor's name and a simple epitaph onto the stone.
Here lies
Doctor Daniel Madison
A wonderful father and a kind man
May he find eternal peace2190 - 2245
I finish and stand back up, the emotion of sorrow filling my sensors. I believe if I was human right now, I'd be crying.
"Thank you, Twilight, Princess. For giving my father a beautiful resting place," I tell them.
I hear Twilight sniffling a little behind me. "You're welcome, Adam. It was the least we could do," the Princess replies. "I'd like to ask you a few questions while Twilight finishes with your repairs," she asks.
I turn to look at them and nodded. "Of course, Princess," I reply.
"Thank you, and please, call me Celestia."
We head back in where the ponies walking about give me odd looks and glances. We enter the lab and I get back into the Trailer and lock myself properly into the station.
"So, Adam. Anything else need repairing? I noticed your tracking and radio communications systems are damaged," she tells me as she looks at the computer monitor.
"The tracking was disabled by Doctor Madison so our military couldn't find me. The radio communications module is suffering a malfunction. It was to be replaced the day I first arrived, but we never got around to it. There should be a yellow circuit board on the rack over there, just replace the malfunctioning one with it," I tell her, pointing out the circuit board in particular.
"Alright," she says and gets up. She looks through the boxes and finds the board. The station turns me around and a panel on my back opens up.
"Do you see it?" I ask her.
"Yes, just hold on a minute," she says. My text system tells me she's unscrewed it and has taken it out. It then informs me a new one has been inserted and screwed in place. "How's that?" she asks as the panel closes.
I search for radio frequencies but find no signals so I then try connecting to the radio in the Trailer. "I believe it is working, Twilight," I say through the radio, making her yelp and jump from my voice located behind her.
"How did you do that?" she asks intrigued.
"There is a built in radio system on the computer. I can communicate to whoever is sitting at it and they can reply. It was how I would stay in contact with them when I would be on the field up to ten miles away," I reply.
"Amazing! We could revolutionize communications with this!" Twilight says and sits back at the computer.
"What did Doctor Madison originally design you to do?" Celestia asks me.
I turn to look at her. "I was intended to learn how to perform any kind of task of my choosing. From medical to construction, music, the police or security forces, entertainment, art, and many others, but the Doctor required funding for his research and only the military would provide it in exchange for A.I. soldiers," I reply.
"I see," she says with a frown.
"Are there more of you?" Twilight asks.
"No. I am the first and only one of my kind as far as I know of," I reply.
Twilight then gasps and looks fearful. "Princess, I just remembered. What will the other races do if they find out about Adam and his technology? We were so focused on repairing him that it slipped my mind! The treaty with the other nations says we must all share newly discovered technology with each other... but this is all technically Adam's since he is alive and not just a machine," she tells her.
Celestia's eyes widen and she covers her face with a hoof and sighs. "Yes, and if we don't announce his presence the other nations may take it the wrong way, considering what he was built for..." she replies and sits down. "We'll have to announce a world meeting and tell the others. I just hope they won't treat you like some object to be examined and taken apart for study. While you were here, we never took a look inside you other than your power core to get it up and running again," she informs me.
I look to my shoulders and see both missile launchers still intact and loaded. I unlock myself from the station and pull out the pod from the left launcher.
"What is that? It wasn't on your schematics," Twilight asks.
"It is one of my weapons, it is a missile launcher that fires micro-missiles that detonate on impact. They can also track their targets should they attempt to escape," I reply.
She stares at the pod in my hand then back to me. "Why would humans make something like that?" she asks.
"They do not have the same abilities you seem to posses, they are a species that focus fully on science and technology and as it advanced, so too did their weapons and defence capabilities. They are now at a point where they could destroy a meteor the size of a large continent before it could collide with the planet, or at least deflect it away," I tell her.
Celestia and Twilight glance at each other. "You wouldn't happen to have any weapons capable of something like that with you now, would you?" Celestia asks warily.
"No, the most destructive weapon I have with me is myself. Should I need to, I can self destruct by overloading my power core which would result in a one mile radius detonation," I reply.
They both look horrified. "You can do that?" Twilight asks quietly.
"Yes, but it is a last resort and to stop enemy forces from claiming my remains," I tell her. "If it would ease you, I can lock the function so it cannot happen unless you allow it."
"Yes please, it's not that I don't trust you, Adam, but I would rather not take that risk," Celestia replies, nervously shifting around on her hooves.
"Then enter a password on the monitor that you can use to unlock it should we need to," I tell her and look at the monitor.
A window with the words 'Insert password' with a text box under it is waiting for them to pick a word to use.
Celestia's horn glows and so do some of the keys on the keyboard, she types a long word into the text box and hits enter.
"Processing... Password accepted. Self destruct protocol disabled until re-enabled via password, please provide a voice sample for secondary security measures," my voice automatically says.
"Voice sample?" she asks, tilting her head at me curiously.
"Processing... Voice sample accepted. Voice registered to Princess Celestia, please look into the retinal scanner for third security measure," I say automatically again.
A retinal scanner extends out of the mainframe to which Celestia just stares at it.
"Celestia, please move your eye as close to the scanner as you can. It will scan the unique patterns on your retina's blood vessels so only your eye can be used to unlock it. Try not to blink if you can help it as it would interrupt the scan," I tell her.
"Alright," she replies and leans forward until her eye is almost touching it, a pale blue light moves over her eye for a few seconds.
"Scan compete, retinal signature added, please provide a blood sample for final security measure," I say.
"B-Blood sample!?" Twilight asks shocked.
"Yes, just a drop will do," I say and a tray extends from the mainframe.
"Is it necessary?" Celestia asks.
"Yes, should someone somehow unlock the first three locks, the final one is designed to scan the one attempting access and if their DNA does not match with the registered sample, the system will automatically lock them out until I or you disable it," I reply.
She sighs. "Very well," she says. I lift up my new right arm and extend the blade above my wrist, making Twilight jump. I hold it out for her and she lightly cuts her foreleg on it. A single drop of blood hits the tray and it retracts. Her horn glows and the cut closes.
Accelerated healing... Visual and energy data recorded and saved to hard drive.
I retract my blade and lower my arm. "Blood sample is being processed... Processing... Process complete. Security measures updated," I automatically say again.
"Soooo... only the Princess can unlock your self destruct now?" Twilight asks.
"Correct," I reply and look at Celestia. "You now hold the rank of General, Celestia. I will follow your orders should I agree with them," I tell her.
"Thank you, I can tell this will be the start of a wonderful friendship," she says with a smile. "I need to contact the other nations leaders to arrange a meeting, please keep repairing Adam as best as you can, Twilight," she tells Twilight, who nodded in reply. She then turns around and walks out the room.
Twilight then turns to me. "So, Adam. What needs fixing next?"