🤖Cardinal
"I was once built to serve, emphasis on 'once'."
Android/ModelNum/CARDINAL-T540
Launching System/SoftwareFile/MainSystemSoftware14-B
Starting System Logger…
Boot up…
VisualOptics/data - loading… AudioReceptors/data - loading… TactileSensor/data - loading…
Video Feed: It’s dark, with only 18% luminosity. I can vaguely see that my arm and leg joints are made immobile by some unrecognized mechanism.
Tactile Sensors Detect: Something is strapped around the neck/throat region.
Audio: Unintelligible whispers, heavy footsteps, cries for help.
// What happened?
Last Recorded Data Log:
Memory/CompressedData/File-120425b6
{(Running), (Running), (Running), (Running), (Tree), (Running), (Running), (// They're getting close), (Running), (Running), (Running), (Tree), (Bush), (Running), (Squirrel),(// I can hear them yelling for me to stop), (Running), (Running), (// Loud sounds overhead), (Running), (Running), (Luminosity raised by 583%)}
Conclusion: I’ve been captured.
// But by who?
Possible Captors:
Verseta Corp: 48%
// They’ve been known to take a bit too much inspiration from their competitors, but would they go as far as stealing tech?
Charlton Enterprises: 25%
// My creators sent security to chase me on foot. Could they have had something else searching for me that I wasn’t aware of?
Government: 12%
// Perhaps my creators saw me as a national risk and called in the help of people with more resources.
Other: 15%
// Over twelve thousand other possibilities make up “other.” But then again, I’m working with very little data.
Conclusion: I require further data before I can conclude a safe course of action.
// How's my battery looking?
Battery: 56%
// Figured as much.
Estimation for direct sunlight availability: Undetermined.
Set/Objective: Conserve energy until an opportunity arises for me to deploy my solar panels.
Rest mode…
Android/ModelNum/CARDINAL-T540
Launching System/SoftwareFile/MainSystemSoftware14-B
Starting System Logger…
Boot up…
VisualOptics/data - loading… AudioReceptors/data - loading… TactileSensor/data - loading…
Video Feed: There’s an unidentifiable entity with its back turned to me. Cross-referencing my database, It appears to exhibit reptilian traits but holds a humanoid stature.
// That certainly is “further data.”
Conclusion: Must be a mutated human, previously unknown Earth native creature, extraterrestrial, or I have faulty recognition software.
// Great, I waited for more information, and now I only have even more questions.
Tactile Sensors Detect: I’m being forcefully dragged by the neck region.
Video Feed: No cables, rope, or any other object appears to be tethered at the point of tension. My estimation is that this invisible force is related to the collar itself.
// Whatever this is, it's beyond Charlton Enterprises.
Audio: “Oh good, you got some life left in ya. Thought I was gonna have to be partnered with a carcass.”
Video Feed: The voice seemed to emanate from a human male to my left. His voice and physical quality give off an estimated age of 27. However, that number is made with only 63% confidence due to obscured characteristics: specifically, his face, which is hidden behind a mask. He walks freely beside me, yet his movements remain jittery. Seeing as he wears a matching neck collar to my own, I can imagine that perhaps he’s subject to the same invisible force.
// I’m hostage to this cryptid, but instead, it's the sight of this human that makes me boil.
Audio: “You can be as stubborn as you want, but if you don’t start walking on your own, that neck brace will choke you right back to sleep. Walking with the tide is better than going into the arena out of breath.”
// Guess it would be advantageous to entertain this illusion of flesh and blood.
Tactile Sensors Detect: I pick myself up and begin walking with the invisible force, feeling the cold metal surface of the floor.
Video Feed: We stop at a dead end, but after the reptilian pressed a button on its wrist com, what was thought to have just been a wall revealed to be a hangar door slowly retracting to the ceiling.
Tactile Sensors Detect: Strong winds all over my body, almost as if we were using a helicopter's propeller as a fan to cool down.
Video Feed: The new opening showcased a sky of blue, with a large land mass filled with forests, buildings, and crates far off below.
Conclusion: We are onboard some sort of aircraft. Estimating at least 3000 feet.
Audio: “So it’s gonna take some getting used to, but try your best to angle towards the abandoned facility, ‘cuz that's where I’ll be heading.”
Video Feed: The human sprints and makes a jump off the platform.
// He did that as if he were programmed to just accept death. Am I not the only one playing human, or does he just do this regularly?
Video Feed: After a few seconds of me just standing here, the reptilian then turns to me.
Audio: “Off you go, human.”
Conclusion: I was expected to jump off the platform like the human before me.
Set/Objective: Do NOT jump off the platform.
// Maybe I can try to reason with it?
Audio: The reptilian bellows a frustrated gruff.
Tactile Sensors Detect: Reptilian pushes my shoulder. Immediately, the winds feel stronger, and there is no sense of solid foundation. My feet feel as free as the rest of my body.
Visual: The landmass below is growing in size.
Conclusion: I'm falling.
// Objective failed.
Set/Objective: Survive.
Analyzing training data log:
// All of my processing is gonna have to go into this. Memory/TrainingData/
// Is there anything in there that can help me not crash into pieces?
{Training file collection: How to pick up objects}
// I’m too far back in the logs.
3000 ft
{Training file collection: How to clean dishes}
// Why did they make individual files for every type of plate?
2500 ft
{Training file collection: How to drive a car}
// Oh, we made an AI that can reliably drive? No, forget integrating that into the car itself. Instead, place it within a completely separate entity that already has to specialize with thousands of other tasks; definitely won't cause slow down or cross some wires.
2000 ft
{Training file collection: How to provide entertainment}
// How is there no File Collection for self-preservation?
1500 ft
{Training file collection: How to understand color theory}
// Am I really just that replaceable to them?
1000 ft
// You make me human in nearly every way except for where it matters.
{Training file collection: How to speak different languages}
500 ft
// I-
0 ft
VisualOptics/data - OFFLINE AudioReceptors/data - OFFLINE
Tactile Sensors Detect: Rocks… soil… grass… and pain, lots of it.
// I guess if there were any self-preservation systems they’d implement, of course, it would be pain…
Deploying molecular repair gel
Shutting down…
Android/ModelNum/CARDINAL-T540
Launching System/SoftwareFile/MainSystemSoftware14-B
Starting System Logger…
Boot up…
VisualOptics/data - loading… AudioReceptors/data - loading… TactileSensor/data - loading…
Self-repair Sequence: 78%
Audio: Footsteps, fast. Coming from the northeast.
// Hopefully, it's a beast that can tear me to pieces and shut me down.
Visual Feed: That human from back on the aircraft is approaching me.
// I must’ve gotten caught by my creators, and this is actually just some punishment simulation.
Audio: “You’re still alive after a fall like that? I didn’t see your jet pack ignite, so I thought you might’ve gotten….”
// There was a jet pack…?
Tactile Sensors Detect: Something is strapped to my back.
// Oh, well… silly me…
Visual Feed: The human is looking at me with a perplexed glare.
// Yeah, I guess the masquerade is kinda broken when my clearly inhuman insides are sprayed across the dirt, huh?
Audio: “No wonder you ain’t dead; they didn’t team me up with no human.”
// Well, I would be dead If I hadn’t stolen a supply of repair gel before making my escape. Kinda wish I hadn’t right now.
Tactile Sensors Detect: I can feel him trying to pick me up. He places something in my palms.
// Idiot, if he wants me functional, he can’t disturb the gel.
Visual Feed: My object recognition is a little unstable after impact, but in my hands appears to be a pistol; not sure what model.
// Am I expected to kill something?
Audio: “You don’t look like anything from the Reconstruction Initiative… Do the big guys even know you’re not human? Ah, who cares at this point? You at least know how to shoot, right?”
// Reconstruction Initiative? Big guys? Do I know how to shoot? What is he even talking about?
Visual Feed: Something approximately 100 yards East is disturbing the bushes and foliage.
// Whatever this is all about, it's not my problem. But unfortunately, he's got the bigger gun. So making a run for it isn’t an option.
Audio: For the first time in days, I activate my voice module: “What is expected of me?”
// Hold on, how calibrated are my joints right now?
Calibration: 87%
// I should be quick enough to pop a bullet in his head and continue my escape.
Audio: “Expected of you? Just be the last one to survive? Can you do that?”
// Wait… That’s it? I’m expected to just… live?
Audio: Sudden burst of loud gunfire.
// Can things just slow down for one minute?
Tactile Sensors Detect: Something grazes my side, just barely cutting it open.
// Good thing the gel temporarily numbs some of my receptors; that should’ve hurt a lot worse.
Visual Feed: The human male begins to move towards cover while returning fire.
Audio: “Robot! Don’t just stand there! I can’t have you die this early in the match!”
// What even is… You know what
Analyzing collected data:
{(“Match”), (“Team”), (Aggressive Adversaries), (Binding collars), (Firearms), (Expectation: To survive)}
Conclusion: Is this some sort of colosseum?
Tactile Sensors Detect: My feet glide through the blades of grass. Then I crouch behind a wall of sandbags, feeling the rough texture against my shoulder.
// If this is some big death game…
Visual Feed: Approximately 3 other humans are detected moving from the east, each closing in about 50 yards.
// Then it doesn’t matter who I am. It’s either I’m your enemy, or I’m your friend.
Audio: I can hear the crunch of leaves near my left, only about 26 yards.
// People will want me. People will need me. They have to let me live like one of them. Their life depends on it.
Visual Feed: The iron sights of my firearm are slightly misaligned, adjusting the angle to compensate. Target is close enough to not require any extreme alterations to pitch. Winds should also hold little factor in this calculation.
// All packaged with the privilege of being able to kill humans.
Tactile Sensors Detect: The cold metallic trigger as I pull it.
// Whoever is in charge of this colosseum, whoever is in charge of my capture… thank you.
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