#charonean

I did some gun designs for one of my settings recently while I was on vacation and I almost forgot to share!!

Made a flag for one of the factions in the worldbuilding I've been workin on. The United Kiin of Luhara!

///ICARUS.Sys.status: NEURAL LINK REESTABLISHED

///ICARUS.Sys.process[subform1] booting…

///ICARUS.Sys.subform1.status: PRIMARY CORE…ONLINE

///ICARUS.Sys.subform1.status: HYDRAULIC SYSTEMS…NOMINAL

///ICARUS.Sys.subform1.status: INTERNAL PSU…NOMINAL

///ICARUS.Sys.subform1.status: UPLINK INTEGRITY…[99.7%]

///ICARUS.Sys.subform1.status: REBOOT INITIALIZED

SEO’s robotic subform sprang to life, the digital visor of her head flickering back on with bright golden light as her body shifted and groaned under the weight of ages of neglect. A thousand different processes and warnings blared in her mind but were sorted through and categorized within mere milliseconds. The tug of the cables of her command station against the back of her head kept her from moving much more.

A few sharp chirps to test her vocalizer before beginning to properly speak for the first time in..who knows how long. “..ARIES status.”

///ARIES.Sys.status: ONLINE AND OPERATIONAL

///ICARUS.Sys.msg.in[ARIES]: I’M STILL HERE, SEO

“Thank fuck.” She wished she could still let out a sigh of relief. A robotic approximation of it would do for now. “What happened?”

///ARIES.Sys.report: HULL INTEGRITY COMPROMISED

///ARIES.Sys.report: POWER CRITICAL ///ARIES.Sys.report: FLIGHT RECORDS AND BLACKBOX DATA INDICATE THE ESN VOLADORES SUFFERED CRITICAL DAMAGE AND HAS BEEN IN SOLAR DRIFT FOR APPROXIMATELY [298y:25d:12h:32m:19.255s]

SEO pinged the last report 127 times in the few seconds that passed to be sure that was right. There was no way that was..how did that happen? How was she still alive? “..what the hell? Status of primary ICARUS project site?”

///ARIES.Sys.report: UNKNOWN

“The fuck do you mean, ‘unknown’?”

///ICARUS.Sys.msg.in[ARIES]: THIS WOULD GO FASTER IF YOU WERE USING INTERNAL PROCESSES INSTEAD OF AUDIO VOCALIZERS

///ICARUS.Sys.msg.out[ARIES]: YEAH YEAH I KNOW

///ICARUS.Sys.msg.out[ARIES]: OLD HABITS AND ALL THAT

She didn’t need to speak vocally. Technically, she didn’t even need a body, not a subform like this, anyway. But it felt more natural like this, all of it did. She needed a voice, a body, a physical presence in the world. Being nothing but lines of code someone could delete on a whim was a concept that scared her more than anything else. Old habits and thoughts from flesh and blood.

///ARIES.Sys.report: ICARUS PROJECT AUXILIARY SYSTEMS UNRESPONSIVE

///ARIES.Sys.report: ALL SUBFORMS AND DRONES DESIGNATED FOR ICARUS PROJECT UNRESPONSIVE 

///ARIES.Sys.report: NO RETURN SIGNAL ON COMMUNICATIONS OUTPUT

///ARIES.Sys.report: NO TRANSPONDERS DETECTED IN LOCAL REALSPACE

///ICARUS.Sys.msg.out[ARIES]: I GUESS THEY DIDNT DESTROY IT IF IM STILL HERE

///ICARUS.Sys.msg.out[ARIES]: WHAT IS THE STATUS OF NEARBY ESN FORCES

///ARIES.Sys.report: VISUAL ANALYSIS CONFIRMS NO INTACT ESN SHIPS IN SYSTEM

///ARIES.Sys.report: NO RETURN SIGNAL ON OUTGOING COMM PINGS

///ARIES.Sys.report: NO ACTIVE MACHINE MINDS DETECTED IN NETWORK

“None? No ships, nobody else whatsoever?” It was a rhetorical question, of course. She reached back to unplug the cables at the base of her neck before leaning forward and letting one hand scrape against the metal of her chair. How was that even possible? If they had lost this war that badly, how had she survived? Maybe they were just out of range of their comms and scanners..

Wait. Their planets, the homes she had built, what had happened to them? 

///ICARUS.Sys.msg.out[ARIES]: WHAT IS THE STATUS OF OUR COLONIES

She couldn’t even wait the hundredths of a second necessary for the response. Pulling up the scanners that were still functional aboard the Voladores only confirmed exactly what she was afraid of.

///ARIES.Sys.report: NO LIFE SIGNS DETECTED

///ARIES.Sys.report: PRELIMINARY SCANS INDICATE EISA AND LUSA WERE CONSUMED BY FIRESTORMS AFTER DIRECT ORBITAL BOMBARDMENT

“Goddamn it!” SEO screamed out in a robotic shriek as she slammed a fist down hard enough to split her arm in half and shatter the entire right side of the chair. Hydraulic fluid and pitch black oil spilled out of her broken arm.

///ICARUS.Sys.subform1.status: HYDRAULICS IMPROPERLY CALIBRATED

///ICARUS.Sys.subform1.status: HYDRAULICS CALIBRATION UPDATED

The broken arm was left at her side as she leaned back into what remained of the chair and let her unbroken hand scratch gently against the glass of her head. Everything was gone. Maybe not all of them, not all the machine minds, but..all that she had built, everything she had worked towards aside from her very own existence was wiped from the map. ARIES. They were still here, at least, always by her side, always here with her. How long had they waited for her?

“..how much of the Voladores is still operational?”

///ARIES.Sys.report: A BREACH IN THE FUSION REACTOR CAUSED A CATASTROPHIC SYSTEM FAILURE THAT SPLIT THE HULL IN HALF

///ARIES.Sys.report: BACKUP GENERATOR IS ONLINE AND PROVIDING POWER TO THESE SYSTEMS THAT REMAIN OPERATIONAL: CIC, DRONE BAY, GUNNERY CONTROLS, THRUSTERS, COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS, ELECTRICAL SYSTEMS

“Shit, no engines.” Tap tap tap against her visor with a metallic finger. “Are any drones operational?”

///ARIES.Sys.report: ALL COMBAT DRONES DEPLOYED AND INOPERABLE

///ARIES.Sys.report: 12/25 UTILITY DRONES REMAIN INTACT AND OPERATIONAL

///ICARUS.Sys.msg.in[ARIES]: WE WOULD NEED A SHIPYARD FOR FULL REPAIRS AS THE REACTOR WAS DETONATED

“..Send a utility drone in here to repair my arm..please.”