Fire and Thunder

by computerneek

Chapter 5: Grenades

She spends a few days, it would seem, in this room. The bigger spider had shown up again, from underneath. It took to speaking for the little one; it even mentioned the door once, saying the stone beast was still outside. It still couldn’t seem to understand her words, but she could understand every word it said. It had headed down again for an hour, roughly a day after it had shown up, then had simply sat on its ledge, ‘resting up’. As with the little one, it had requested she say something if she need anything. It seems they need to sleep a lot.

She’s also running out of food. She’s got only one meal left. Her medicine is a different story- she’s still got a few days’ worth of that. Though, if this new ache in her head means anything, it needs updating. She hopes it’s just a headache.

Then, suddenly, she hears a deep roar from down the hole. At the same time, a sharp glare flies up from underneath, outshining the little light the spiders had provided for her. She yelps as she leaps to her hooves, looking down at the yellow glow. The glow like a bonfire, with that odd roar to accompany it. The roar… That’s fading? At first, she’d been afraid a Stonewolf had broken in- but its roar wouldn’t draw on and on, simply fading in volume. The light also fades, stabilizing- and she feels a sudden hot breeze from below.

Oh no. Please don’t tell me this thing’s on a volcano.

Finally, the roar disappears completely, and the light seems to hold steady. The spider jumps up, turning to face her, and speaks.

“Fusion One online,” it states, confusing her utterly. “I shouldn’t need to sleep anymore.”

She looks down, and back up at it again. “What?”

“That’s my power plant,” it says. “Completely safe.”

---

Fusion One ignites without issue, albeit in a nonstandard manner. Normal procedure is to power the containment field first, start the fusers, feed in the fuel, and wait for stability before linking it to the power grid. Unfortunately, I had not time to do it in that order. So, I started with it already linked. I fed the fuel as I started the fusers; I used an extremely low flow rate on the fuel, though, as the containment field remained offline. Once ignition began, the open flame rapidly produced more power than was being used by the fusers; this power I directed into the containment field, starting it up. As the containment field came on and strengthened, I was able to increase the fuel flow- and reactor power level- up to a standard idle, where it rests now. Much more and it will outpace fuel production; the aquifer I punctured is not very large. Even as I inform the creature in my Command Deck of my situation, my nanites get to work in reproduction.

This fusion plant, at a low idle, is producing easily a hundred times as much as all for geothermal generators combined- and I cannot expect the aquifer to last forever, so I must store what I can. It takes only three minutes to top off all of my functional power cells; I have half of my nanites working on restoring more power cells, and the other half working reproduction, consuming my breached outer armor. New nanites are split evenly between the two tasks.

Eighteen minutes of this passes calmly; my Final Emergency Reserves are now 93.41% functional and charged.

Now, however, I have run out of required materials for the repairs, beyond the rest of my Final Emergency Reserves and 3.71% of my Emergency Reserves; I devote all excess nanites to resource scavenging. I have exhausted much of the minerals in the surrounding soil…

This reminds me. Atmospheric exhaustion on my command deck will soon be a problem. My spider reports what my unrepaired internal audio pickups cannot- an increased baseline breathing rate. I immediately begin evaluating my options.

If I do nothing, I expect the atmosphere will be poisonous within 9.31 hours.

If I refresh the atmosphere, I expect I can maintain breathability for 2.28 days; I lack the facilities for atmospheric retrieval, and must settle for that which I can find in dissolved/’fixed’ form in the soil.

Unfortunately, any exhaustion of atmospheric quality is unacceptable. Additionally, I detect only one foil-wrapped meal left in the creature’s packs. I can manufacture food, even in my current state; however, I expect to be able to provide food for only 1.31 days- and water is already scarce enough, even without my reactor burning it all. I am not able to discover a suitable remedy for this situation; the flask the creature brought along appears to be empty now. I find the only way to allow her survival is to ensure a safe exit back into the environment, where she can (presumably) locate food and water on her own.

Only, those stonewolves seem to be waiting behind that command deck door…. Wait. I order my spider to test the air with its chemical sniffers again. Yes, that is potassium nitrate, sulfur, and what looks like charcoal… Gunpowder. Solution! It would seem the creature has brought explosives of some sort- a little bit of reshaping and perhaps reconstructing on those should make them plenty powerful enough to blow the wolves to pieces! Though, I hesitate to use materials that have not been offered to me. I resolve to ask.

Hmm… It would seem she doesn’t know what explosives are… and is unfamiliar with the term ‘gunpowder’. However, it seems she catches onto my meaning- she starts looking through her pack. She lays out a few things, as if offering them- a book, the used foil wrappers, all wadded up, the case my mini-spider was held in… She pauses suddenly, looking to the side, and lifts something off the plating next to her, outside my spider’s view range, placing them with the rest, as another offer.

Fireworks.

Six of them, to be specific. I have some nanites slip inside to analyze their chemistry and construction; I also slide a couple nanites into the spent foil, for identification purposes. Depending… Wow. Pure aluminum there, if I leave out the food residue. Yes, that will be useful- partly as part of my repair operations, but I can also use it to help shape the charges, if need be.

Who built these fireworks? The propellant stage will last for hardly 0.04 seconds, propelling it no further than 9 feet, before the main charges start going off- and they’re a lot bigger and more powerful than any firework main charges have a right to be! Whatever- they’re already decent explosives, it’ll only take some small adjustments to make them a fare-thee-well for the wolves.

Interesting that I find extra nickel nuggets embedded in the tip of each firework… This will be useful in my repairs, but would serve no use for the firework- and very little use in a non-frag explosive.

Only 9.31 seconds after the fireworks were offered, I start my spider on its way to reassemble them as warheads. The native watches it work; I adjust the work pattern to allow her to see what it is doing. This will extend re-assembly time by almost 6.93 seconds; however, it does not matter if it takes one minute or twenty to perform this task, so I continue on my task.

73.91 seconds pass. The final warhead is about 3.91 seconds from completion, and I just realized something.

My internal programming has automatically registered her as my Commander. Why, I do not know; I do not even know when. I could search the logs to find out, but it does not matter. Thus, I realize I am preparing to send my Commander out into known enemy territory, unarmed and unarmored. In addition, she will have no way to contact me- and I will have no way to find her once I return to functionality. In fact, I will have no way to even verify her continued survival- and with no data on her probable lifespan, I cannot meaningfully estimate at what point I would consider a missing commander deceased!

I spend almost 0.71 seconds tackling this problem before I come up with a solution. The nuggets I have removed from the new warheads have turned out not to be pure; the outer layer is nickel, but the inside is not. The assortment of metals present can, with reassembly, be converted into a long-range commset. This takes only 2.91 minutes, and much of that is nanite work.

Finally, I have assembled six midsize grenades and a specialized commset.

I turn my spider towards her. Time to break it to her… But how? I spend 0.37 seconds in consideration.

“Here,” I begin, lifting the commset to offer it to her. “This is for you.”

She blushes gently, but accepts the set. It’s a specially-designed two-piece wearable commset. One piece will clip on around one ear; it should not interfere with her normal hearing, nor the motion of that same ear. The other piece is a bracelet, to be worn on one foreleg or the other; I have designed it to fit on either. They are colored to match her fur, and should match fairly well; I have designed them to look like jewelry. She puts it on as soon as I explain where each piece goes. I have chosen not to explain the device’s function just yet; I am uncomfortable with this decision, but find it to be the best one right now. Best not to taint the gift with such information just yet; it seems she likes it as is.

I then make my next question, when she finishes. “You have a home?”

I watch a myriad of expressions blaze across her face and through her eyes in a second or less. She has a home, yes- and she worries about it as well. Then, she nods, saying something more. Like her previous orations, I record it. I do not have enough samples for any real lingual analysis yet, and cannot understand a single word, but this is another step on that road.

“Ahh,” I make my spider ‘nod’. “You should probably go.”

For this, I get a single word, a tilted head, and an inquisitive look.

“The air in here is fast growing stale, and I have no food or water to offer. You probably have all three in or near your home, which is probably also safe.”

I spoke fast. She blinks slowly, once or twice, before finally responding. I get a couple of words this time, alongside some worried body language- and a hoof offered to my spider.

“I will be fine here,” I answer her, guessing at her question. “I do not need air, food, nor water; my armor will protect me from harm, as it has you these last couple days.”

She makes an argument I cannot understand.

“I must apologize, I don’t know your language. I cannot venture far from here; it is fortunate I have all I need for a long time.” I do not mention I expect the aquifer to run low- forcing me to shut down my fusion plant- in only 2.31 days.

It looks like she wants to argue further, but she seems to have accepted my statement. She looks at the door before turning back to my spider to ask a question.

I have the spider grab one of the grenades and take station in front of the door. I snap the door wide- the slides have been fully reworked- and have the spider lob the primed weapon through it, such that it should end up between two stonewolves. The door then snaps shut again- and the blast can be heard rather loudly. I allow it a couple seconds to vent safely out the still-wide-open doors to outside before sliding the door open again to review the carnage.

Comments

[LostArchivist]

Huh. She didn't know where the fireworks came from either, right? That is strange...

[computerneek]

8812751
Yep, she doesn't remember packing any either. I do know where they came from, though... That'll be a reveal for an upcoming chapter.

[Canary In The Coal Mine]

Throwing a grenade out of an "indestructible" door after opening and closing it rapidly makes me laugh. It's very video-game-mechanics abuse logic.

[computerneek]

8812931
Yes, definitely. Though, this time the door is technically destructible... Though the duralloy is thick enough the low-power grenade doesn't pack enough punch to damage it. Plus, the pressure will be vented (eventually, at least) through the still-open path to outside, through that cave... making it a viable tactic.

There's also the part about explosives in a confined space (that can withstand the overpressure, at least). As I recall, in real life, those have a tendency of creaming everything, not just that in its immediate vicinity. I don't know anything real about that... But- given where he put it, presumably the wolves were close together- those things should be screwed, right?

[tsaukpaetra]

Pinkie!!!