MsChimeric

Moonfiend

Katrina Meyer

He laughed quietly to himself. He was pretty sure he knew this voice. He glanced back at Kat. "Hey, Kat. Is it possible to use robots as a, uhhhh, radio?"

Kat had also heard the voice, albiet faintly, from the bot she had just left behind in the surgery room. "Yeah, easily especially for bots like this- they're all wirelessly linked to a government network, makes it easier to roll out software updates and co-ordinate in emergencies."

It wouldn't surprise her that they would act as speakers in times of emergency too- you were never far from a robot in Periphery, so you could be sure your message would get through.

Vincent had already headed out to speak to the bot. For a second she was torn to go with Vincent- she recognised that voice over the radio.

But the high pitched scream, and the response she could hear outside the wall, put Kat straight back into high alert. Now is not the time get distracted on Bots! She thought to herself, irritably.

Ducking her head round the door. Kat looked over at Vincent and the bot.

"Vincent, we need get moving to the others. I've no idea what that Grit just did, but it doesn't sound like we're going to enjoy it."

Walking up to the bot, she put her hands on its head, twisted the head and janked it clean off. It came off smooth- the base was clean metal, apart from an area onto which a circuit board was burnished in the middle- the docking point.

"This thing has a small powerpack in its head, it's so it can be transferred to more specialised surgical bodies if needed without shutting down." She explained. "Won't last long without being reattached to another body, maybe ten minutes- so I would avoid being too chatty."

She flashed a grin, adrenaline pumping through her as she handed Vincent the head.

"Now let's go!"

Kat set off, running down the stairs, praying that she wasn't too late to help the others, that they weren't too late to get out. I might be using these implants sooner than I thought.

Moonfiend

Katrina Meyer

"PROJECT WILLOW. RESEARCH IN THE NATURE OF DREAMS AND EMERGENCY OFFENSIVE MEASURE FOR THE ERADICATION OF GRIT COLONIES. ALPHA TESTING STAGES. HEADED BY DOCTOR ALPHONSE DERIATHAN. AUTHORIZED BY KING LUCIAN UNQUIET. NATURE OF WEAPON REDACTED. LOCATION UNKNOWN. CLASSIFICATION LEVEL SIXTEEN."

What the hell?!

Kat waited patiently for the robot to continue, but it merely stated some dull platitude about how candy was bad for you. She tried to rack her brains- did she remember a Doctor Alphonse Deriathan, had she ever read anything by him… She couldn’t remember; the name rang no bells. Probably not my kind of doctor.

Something to do with dreams. Dreams, and killing Grit- Project Willow was some kind of weapon; and it was one which had been developed over some time, if it was authorised by the old King.

A loud screech echoed all the way up the stairwell, which was enough to distract almost everyone else- Liam, Maria and Vincent had all headed over to see what was up. Kat’s mind was too busy whirling to really focus on much else. Not that her thoughts got her much further, she just kept returning the same theme- Location unknown; does that mean someone took it?

Shaking her head, Kat focused back on her situation. Liam had dumped a bag of bionic implants next to her, before running off down the stairs. They seemed to be talking to someone, but given there had been no follow-up scream Kat decided to assume everyone was alright for now.

Kneeling, Kat opened the bag. Liam had a decent eye; he’d managed to find some impressive hardware. Or, perhaps the real surprise was that such impressive hardware had been lying around in the first place. This stuff wasn’t for neutralising humans, retractable blades, gun arm attachments… this was for Grit.

Kat hadn’t augmented herself for some time- she’d worn quite a lot of cosmetic bionic implants when she was a teenager, which was the in thing for most engineering students. That stuff had fallen out of fashion by the time she went to college- it was slowly making its way back into the mainstream, though this time in a more biopunk theme.

Still, she had never really been one for intense body modification (asides from her sigils)… plus, there was no time for it even if she found something that had been useful. So she searched through the bag, looking for something which would be quick and non-intrusive.

“Aha!” She cried, eureka moment buzzing in her ears. Alongside the shoulder tendrils (which would require surgery to implant properly, were two strips of thin, lightweight aluminium, small oval power packs with connectors like spiders legs attached to each strip by thin wires. A pair of subdermal implants, each of which were capable of ten electrical charges at max capacity. The charges packed a real punch too- about as strong as an electrolaser. Flicking the ‘test’ switches on each power pack, she smiled to feel the ovals vibrate twice in short succession- meaning they were both fully charged and working.

There’s sterile equipment here, a surgery bot- I probably won’t get a chance like this again for some time. I need to be able to fight somehow.

Kat didn’t have a great knowledge of medical matters, but in her line of work she knew how to get an implant in or out of someone quickly. Running into the surgery room, Kat saw one of the jars of microbots in gel and grabbed it, as well as a scalpel and a large syringe. Clicking her fingers, she gestured at the surgical robot to come into the surgery room with her.

“I need your help.”

She quickly explained the procedure that would be needed to perform the operation. Handing the scalpel to the bot, Kat worked quickly on her right arm to start with- rubbing some numbing gel on the area before beginning. The subdermal implants were best placed on the front of her forearms, and extended all the way up to her elbows, with the power pack and nerve connections on the underside of her wrist to catch her deep branch vein on either arm. The thin strips of aluminium were thin enough that her skin didn’t need to stretch over them- the power packs she kept external , bending the connectors so they dug into her skin and connected to her nerves. Looking at the robot, she laid her left forearm on the surgery table and nodded. The robot leaned over and made the first incision.

Ow ow ow ow ow

The numbing gel wasn’t quite doing the trick, but she didn’t really have many other options at this point- anything more potent would both take too long and dull her speed and sharpness after surgery. She didn’t turn her head away as the bot peeled the upper layer of her skin with one hand, and carefully placed the implants beneath her skin. When she was happy the implants were in place, Kat pinched her skin together with her fingers and, filling the syringe with gel, squeezed the gel out over the incisions she’d made. The microbots got to work almost immediately; noticing the damaged skin and replicating new skin cells to plug the gap.

After about thirty seconds, the thin cuts she had made were gone- you could see where they’d been, as the skin there was too new, too pale compared to the rest of her arm. But at least she wasn’t bleeding profusely. Grabbing a paper towel from the wall, Kat wiped off the gel and the two of them began work on the other arm.

The whole procedure took about twenty minutes, leaving long, thin lines of new skin along both her forearms. Tentatively, she reached out and touched the new skin, feeling the hard strips of metal beneath. Kat suddenly felt quite a long way from home- alien in her own skin. If you’d told me I’d be implanting myself this afternoon, I’d have laughed at you.

Looking around, she realised everyone had disappeared. Her arms felt odd, perhaps painful, but definitely uncomfortable. It’d be a while until she was used to the extra weight she’d added. Sliding her jacket back on (the powerpack was just visible above her cuffs, but only if you were looking closely) she walked out of the surgery room. Every had left- clearly gone to see what the shouting was about. Picking up the bag of implants (stashing some scalpels, the jar of microbots and syringe in her rucksack), Kat headed down the stairs to see what everyone else was making a fuss about.

Moonfiend

So sorry, this week was way busier than expected! I'll finish off my post and put it up in the next hour or so :)

Moonfiend

So I've written up a post, but I'm a little stuck on one point- I've thought of some implants Kat can give herself, but I can't seem them taking less than 20mins to implant. I'm not convinced having Kat out of action for that length of time is feasible at this point (or if it's true to her character, but that's for me to figure out haha).

What do you guys think? My post can quite easily be adapted so that Kat just decides to wait until there is more time but I just really enjoyed writing about her new implants...

I'll probably sleep on this and try and post something tomorrow!

Moonfiend

I'm also working on something! Will try and post later today.

Moonfiend

Katrina Meyer

"Excuse me, miss? I noticed that you looked a bit worried, so I got this for you. It's a rum ball. I've always thought that candy helps people relax a bit, so I wanted to give you some." Maria paused, looking a bit worried herself. "...If you don't mind me asking, what are you so worried about?"

He then faced the robot. "Tell us all details you know of Project Willow." He turned back to Kat and put a hand on her shoulder with a smile. "Everything will be alright." He was absolutely assured of this. After all he had was confident he had everything he needed to fix everyone he wanted.

Although Kat knew the others were trying to console her with the best of intentions, she had to fight down frustration at herself for making her distress so evident. Unwrapping the rum ball, she popped it into her mouth and chewed thoughtfully. Not quite as good as a real drink, but it’ll do for now. She smiled bashfully at Vincent and Maria. It wasn’t like her to get so wound up about things, but when it came to her siblings… they were the only people she really gave a damn about. Despite the hundreds of friends and followers she’d accrued on social media, and the large amorphous social circle she hung out with on nights out.

The boy who called himself Moth proceeded to interrupt the moment with a “damn” filled rant on the morning they’d had so far. The young girl, who had been so kind to her, then responded with a significantly more inspiring take on the situation. Kat felt herself looking warmly at the two of them. They must at least a few years younger than me, and yet seem to be taking this so well. Vincent too. Perhaps I grew up more than I thought I had, to be worrying so much.

“You seem to have a sweet for every occasion. I’m quite impressed.” Kat remarked dryly to the girl.

“And I like the way you think, too. That’s the way a mechanic’s supposed to see things; if there’s a problem, then there’s no point getting worried about it. You’ve just got to figure out if you can fix it with what you’ve got to hand.”

The bashful look returned to Kat’s face. I hope that didn’t sound as stupid to them as it did to me. I was never any good at sounding smart.

“Sorry for being moody before. The people I was waiting for whilst up on the wall… I’m pretty worried about what happened to them. But Moth here has a point- we need to focus on getting out of here first. What’s your name? I’m Kat.”

Moonfiend

Katrina Meyer

"Perhaps we should ask it a different question? The thing could just say go out the door and hit the trolley." He turned his attention to the robot. "Do the stairs go all the way down to the ground? Also, tell us of any armories along the way down if any and any that are near the base of the Wall itself."

Kat let Vincent pose his more accurate question at the robot, whilst biting the inside of her lip in annoyance at herself. He’s right; I’m just being too impatient. She didn’t typically have to talk to the robots after she’d messed around with them, except for a quick diagnostic check.

Still, she was mildly pleased with how she’d bypassed the overrides on this one, so she decided not to be too harsh on herself, and smiled back at the pipe-smoking gentleman who had complimented her on her handiwork.

The robot came out with its description of where they were and a variety of options for where they could be going (including an unhelpful base-jumping option, which to be fair was the best answer to her original question). There was one thing which stood out in Kat’s mind.

Why on earth did it feel the need to bring up something called ‘Project Willow’..? Did it do it because I asked for weapons? Is it a weapon?

Pushing down her curiosity (there were likely many things about Periphery she didn’t know, and now was not the best time to try and figure them all out), Kat focused on the situation.

BOOM

That shaking… They’re attacking the bottom of the wall! Are they trying to let through the Grit that can’t climb?

"I think we should get going down now. The armory in the North wall could take to long and the grit could flood the wall before we know it. Going back up for additional arms would probably take to long as well. I don't know how quickly we can adorn the implants, but if they don't require surgery, we should use them. Also we should stop at the emergency armory. That one is on the way and we can quickly get weapons then. I can even jump down the center of the flights and scout ahead. I'm not one for arguing what we do, but I don't really want to fight my way out and I do want to act."

Pausing only for a moment, Kat looked the man who had spoken firmly in the eyes and nodded.

“Sounds as good a plan as any. I can’t imagine base jumping into a horde of Grit, or waiting here for them to come find us will work better.”

Then we just need weapons… If the surgery room has battle-ready implants, at least some of them won’t require any complex surgery. The ones that do will take too long for me to implant.

“Liam! Grab any implants that looks easy to use and let’s head out! ” Kat called, then paused for a moment. “Anbaric is a good brand, if you can see any!" Decent shoulder tendril and forearm ballistic implants, and their subdermal electromagnetic skin-strips pack a punch. Assuming the Grit can be electrocuted, that is.

Kat looked around the room for anything she could pick up before they headed out. Given that the surgery supplies had already been raided, and Liam was hopefully picking up some bionic implants, there wasn’t really any reason to stick around in this room. But something was still niggling her at the back of her mind.

Turning to Vincent, she started to say something, stopped, then shook her head and looked at him frankly.

“Do you think there’s any way we can ask a question to find out more on that ‘Project Willow’? If not, I can just extract the bot’s central data storage unit and analyse it later.”

She felt a little guilty for caring about this when her siblings could be in danger, which probably showed on her face- working on the bot had calmed her, but things still felt unreal. Yet given all that was going on Kat couldn't help but feel they needed all the information they could get… Especially if some huge weapon had gone missing. We need to hurry. But like earlier, I shouldn't let my impatience get in the way of the information we might need.

Moonfiend

Sorry for being so quiet, I was unwell last week! Will try and write up a post tonight :)

Moonfiend

Also posted :) Think you can add to @Eodwyn Aether's summary the following:

Kat: OH LOOKIE HERE A ROBOT I CAN MECHANIC

Moonfiend

Katrina Meyer

Once the banking of the Grit against the door stopped, Kat breathed a sigh of relief. The pounding, scratching and growling was setting her already tense nerves even closer to the edge. Thank goodness she’d already recovered from her hangover.

”Uhhg.”

Looking over to the groaning middle-aged hooded man, Kat almost exclaimed in shock. She hadn’t really paid much attention to any of their companions so far, but this guy looked like he’d been having a really bad day. And, given that it was highly unlikely that anyone in the group she was in could be said to be having a ‘good day’, that was saying something.

The man crawled into one of the hospital beds, looking exhausted.

”We’re in bad shape, people.

Speak for yourself. Kat thought, looking around the room. Her first priority was getting down the wall to Periphery itself. The sign mentioning ‘stairs’ looked like a good start- but on the other hand any time spent wandering about the wall could be the difference between life and death at this stage. Kat felt adamant she couldn’t make any mistakes.

Walking up to the robot, she moved her right hand towards the base of its neck to check the model number. It was a pretty old one, not quite ancient but certainly not the most up-to-date. That served Kat fine though- newer models she had less experience with, since her job was to fix up broken down bots when their owners had worn them out.

Pulling out a fat disc-shaped object the size of her palm out of her rucksack, she flicked a switch on the side and waited for the disk to display a small menu screen at its centre, listing several different model names. Scrolling through, Kat reached the model name which matched the robot in front of her. The robot would probably recommend the evacuation route to Periphery if we asked it now, but perhaps there is a faster way…

The tall muscled man, who introduced himself as Liam, suggested they get armed and off the wall, distracting her from the screen of her her PalmPulse. She looked up and watched him walk into the surgery room. If it meant they could get off the wall with all their limbs attached, then armour was a good plan. Another question for the robot perhaps, but it was unlikely it would tell them where any armouries were located on the wall- not unless they were royal guards.

Looking around at the rest of the ‘group’, Kat gave a casual wave.

“I’m Kat. I’d say it’s nice to meet you all, but I kinda wish I was meeting you in a different circumstance…”

Hoping she hadn’t come across as too rude, she quickly looked down at her PalmPulse, and then raised it to show the screen to the others still in the room.

“I’m a mechanic, do all kinds of jobs really but my speciality is robots. I think I can try and get some useful information out of this robot if I just quickly adjust its loyalty circuits with this.”

Moving the PalmPulse so the base of the disk pointed towards the robots head and the screen towards her, Kat pressed the model number on the screen. To avoid just anyone screwing round with a robot’s core, most models responded to specific pulses which allowed the computational core of the robot to be accessed. The pulses changed quite regularly to try and outsmart hackers, but through the local mechanics guild Kat had access to them as soon as they were updated.

The Palm Pulse glowed faintly blue for a moment, sending out an electromagnetic pulse towards the robot, and then stopped. Sure enough, at the back of the robots head part of its outer casing hinged away in response to the pulse. Quickly skirting round, Kat pointed her right hand through the gap left in the robots outer casing.

That bit looks like the loyalty circuit… If I just bypass it entirely then it’ll give out sensitive information to anybody instead of just authorised personnel.

Kat replaced her PalmPulse in her backpack and pulled out the soldering finger attachment, putting it on her left index finger. Kat touched the base of her finger with her right hand and recalled the fear she’d felt on the trolley just before, the fear Vincent had snapped her out of. The tip of her soldering attachment began to glow slightly red, as the heat sigil on her left finger did its work.

Forming an ‘ok’ sign with her right hand, palm facing towards the robot’s insides, Kat raised her right hand to her eyes. Activating the magnifying sigil on that hand, she leaned in towards the robot, reaching her soldering attachment out and into the dense circuitry inside.

Deattach this one… attach to this… Then this… Ah, I should check to make sure the overrides don’t trigger…

She didn’t realise it, but Kat was humming tunelessly to herself. Complex circuitry and machinery was the equivalent to a fine wine to her; it was something to be relished, something that when you tasted it consumed you, asked you to take your time on it. The whole exercise took only a few minutes- the complexity of the circuitry didn’t mean that for Kat, this was difficult work- often the first stage in a more complex process if the robot was seriously faulty was ensuring it considered you authorised to run a full diagnostics. Here, she was removing the entire concept of an ‘authorised person’ to save time, and so that others in the group could ask it questions, which was much less elegant but also a lot less effort.

“There!” She said, breaking the magnification sigil’s circle and closing the back of the robot’s head. She deactivated her sigil as well, keeping the soldering attachment on her finger as it cooled down. I don’t know why, but that helped calm me down. Maybe we can beat these Grit together.

Circling round to the front of the Robot, Kat gave it a once over.

“Please tell us the fastest route to Periphery from this room. Also, please indicate in your description any nearby armouries.”