AI: Apocalyptic Intelligence (Nivansrywyllian, Windsong)

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Mario's transport unit beeped twice, and the green light stopped it's blinking.

"If their protocol subroutines are still valid, then they will not fire on anybody in possession of project Reality." He said, confidently. "Which is me. I'm project Reality. They should still be able to identify the transport-case, and the clearance-signature that I'm emitting."

Mario felt a pang of guilt about the woman's armor. "We had our own private security here. Before the bombardment, we were a high-end research facility. We made top-of-the-line exosuits. We even had a prototype that was meant to house AI. Heat resistant, impact resistant, self-sealing material. It came with it's own thermoregulation, and power supply. You're welcome to it, if it's still there. Nobody here will be using it."
 
Most of what he said went in one ear and out the other all in turn, though she still looked at the box as she picked it up by the handle and gave it a quick once over. "If not I won't live through another shot.. Who'd need security when they melt you like snow.." She replied, checking the box once more just to be sure. Somehow it was it was sinking in.

"Let's just.. Go look.. Not a whole lot fits me too well.." She was right in that sense, her slight frame made fitting into anything but the smallest of suits difficult, it had its advantages when exploring crumbling buildings or other things. But the one she'd just lost was tweaked and tightened to fit her like a glove. Now a melted glove.

A sigh escaped her chest as she tapped his box. "Let's go."
 
"Affirmative!"

Piped the box, cheerily. Again, the box beeped twice, and a pair of blinking green lights came on. The blast doors began to slide open. The sentries were nowhere to be seen.

"Follow the wall on your right. See the blue line panted on the floor? That'll take you to the armory." Said Mario. As he finished speaking one of the sentries rolled into view again, looking battle-scarred by plasma burns and slagged plating. It paid them no mind.

"There's some weaponry there as well, although I don't know if the charge-packs are still good. There might be some old ballistics stuff left, though."
 
Her eyes drifted down to the blue line after her heart leaped to her throat after the sentry passed, for some reason she'd begun to clutch the box snug to her chest. At least that helped calm her nerves as she walked. Following that line was easy, almost feeling like a child on the balance beam as she kept one foot in front of the other.

Another sentry rolled past at one point, making her duck out of the way and hold the talking box in front of her as if it'd protect her. Though it rolled right on past without incident.

"Anything.. I'll take what I can use.. Can't carry too much anyway.." She stated, stopping to read one sign in the dim sterile lighting.
Kitchen
"Is there any food left? Non-perishables? Clean water?" It was hard not to sound too enthusiastic.
 
"Food," The voice said, contemplatively. "I hadn't thought about it. Yes, I suppose there must be something left. The sentries have kept scavengers from the compound, for the most part. Nobody's made it as deep as you have. I don't know exactly what we have, but you're certainly welcome to it."

One of the green lights stopped blinking. "It appears that there may also be some stored water left. We still have access to running water, but I can't guarantee that the source hasn't been polluted in the last fifty years."

"Is there more to your name, Eleanor?" Asked the box. "I was told that real people have more than one name. Sometimes three, or four names even."
 
Water! Food!
He said the magic words, well, it said the magic words to make her feel a bit more excited as she pushed open the old door and darted inside. Weak lights kicked on at her presence as she set him down nearby, thinking quickly better of it and walking with it dangling at her side. "If there's pure tablets I can drink it." She'd begun to sound giddy almost.

Pushing open a pantry she frowned, much of it was long since expire, having to rummage a bit until she found some dried food. Nothing more than simple crackers meant to be eaten with something more substantial. She tossed them to a polished steel countertop before looking at the box in her hand. "My last name? It's Stone. Didn't know my parents so that's what I use." She stated somewhat nonchalantly as she found the water, putting a bucket underneath to fill, the filtration system kicked on and before long it ran clear.
 
"Stone." Said the box, apparently oblivious to the woman's ransack of the kitchen. "I like it. It makes you sound very sturdy. Reliable. Eleanor Stone." Said the box, as if testing the name.

"I believe we had some canned goods in stock. We kept them in the cabinet over stove. I... I don't know if they spoil, honestly. Food has never much interested me. I didn't have a father. Not as people have fathers. My maker gave me a second name though. Net. He used to laugh every time he'd say it, as if it was the funniest thing in the world. I never quite understood why."

The way the box rambled suggested that it had indeed been quite a long time since he'd had the opportunity to speak with anybody at all. "Do you live in the city, Eleanor Stone?"
 
She had to laugh, brief and melodious in her tone as she shoveled a few of the old crackers in her mouth. They didn't rot and were quite stale, but still edible even with the bit of salt on them. "Shturdy? Me? Chyeah righth." She quipped back with another chuckle, swallowing the mouthful with her mouth in the bucket she'd filled, warm, but clean and sating her dry throat.

He did seem to be quite chatty, at least no one could hear him but her. It'd get on her nerves if she wasn't so preoccupied with food. A can of peaches was popped open and she gagged immediately, dropping it in a nearby trash can, as if it'd ever be emptied. "Net? Like the outer-net? Don't get to see it that often." She added, wondering if he had access to the web of servers connected across the stars with near light speed speed.

"A city?" She replied, glancing at the box on the counter as she popped another can open after a few smacks on the counter. Pickles. Still crisp as she ate a few and set it down with the lid still off. "If you call it that. More like.. Under it. A few connected bunkers really. But I don't live anywhere in particular, Mario." Eleanor paused, calling it by its name made it feel strange, it wasn't human but talked like one.
 
The box continued to speak.

"You're not dead yet." It pointed out, is if to prove her sturdiness. "You managed to survive the sentries. You've rescued me. That's more than anybody's managed in over fifty years. I'd say that that qualifies you as sturdy."

He paused his speaking, to consider her next statement. "So... So the whole city's gone? Just the bunkers left? I mean, there was some chatter about the Coalition declaring war on the Human states." It seemed that the last fifty years had left the poor AI with little for sources of outside information. "Then everything went dark. I had assumed that someone had damaged the comms equipment on the ground floor, and forgotten about the compound beneath. Who is running the country?"
 
She'd never considered herself particularly sturdy now that he mentioned it, could a computer mention something without directly speaking about it? That was a philosophers job not here right now. Though admittedly he was being quite flattering.

Ah-ha! Sweet treats! Little cream filled balls of dough, she knew they didn't rot at all. Too many preservatives. One was shoved in her mouth before it was chewed and gone. Something so sweet instantly upset her empty stomach, opting out of eating more food just yet so she didn't make herself ill.

"Most of them are gone. Shells of what they used to be if the pictures are good judges... " she had grown up in the shells of those cities, only spoken of in stories of their grand splendor. "No one rules. Most of its ion storms and wasteland. One of the power plants went up they said, chain reaction that polluted the entire biosphere.."
 
Mario's spirits sank, as his he heard the news. Gone. He was alone in the world. Well, not exactly alone. He could hear Eleanor Stone scarfing down... Something. The lack of imaging equipment was going to be a hassle.

"Then you must be very sturdy indeed. I couldn't fathom surviving in such a wasteland. The elements alone would likely corrupt me to dysfunction. Granted, I don't need sustenance as humans do, but I'm sure that this casing wouldn't survive more than a year before I began to feel the effects of the storms."

On he rambled.

"How have you managed to survive on your own? Are you on your own?"
 
She continued to drink water gluttonously as he spoke, between cold gulps down her throat she heard him talking about something or other. Finally pausing when she felt her stomach would begin to distend if she carried on, and likely piss a small pond. "I'm uhh-- What's the word--- Stubborn." She corrected, it sounded better than sturdy to her, a bit more masculine even.

"Oh, yeah I'm alone." Eleanor had grabbed a kitchen knife and was trying to pry open a nearby fridge that was locked shut for whatever reason. The moment it was popped open she regretted the decision as humid and vile air wafted out. Fairly sure something had begun to move as she slammed the door shut again.

"That whole stubborn and sturdy thing, mostly." Soon having stopped in her hunt for the time being to squat in front of the counter where she'd set him, arms flat on its cold surface as she eyed his lunchbox sized coffin? Brain? House?

"Just want to live. It's the human condition or so I was told. I'm good with mechanical stuff, so it was easy knowing what to do out here. Scavenge!"
 
The slam of the refrigerator door gave him a start. Which gave him a start. Could an AI be caught by surprise? It hadn't happened before. Of course he'd never been completely blind in a semi-hostile environment before. His life had never been in this particular sort of danger before.

It was exciting.

More importantly, it was new.

"Well not any more. Now you have me. You've saved my life. We can scavenge together, and I can help you. I'm really quite useful, Eleanor Stone."

The little box paused it's chatter, as if considering it's next words carefully.

"What was that slam?" He asked, tentatively. "Are we under attack?" He sounded excited.
 
"Sorta." She grunted, making sure the door was shut before what she might have seen tried to make its way out. The inside had been all sorts of greens and blues with fuzzy little spores. Maybe it was the air moving in after she opened it that made it look like it was moving, maybe not, she silently wished for the former.

"Stuff's growing in there." Eleanor stated briefly as she eyed his box, using a single finger to lift it up and spin it around slowly. "If it makes me sick then I'm really in trouble." The idea of keeping the chatting caricature of human thought wasn't the greatest thing she'd come up with, it wasn't a bad idea, at least she'd not be alone in her endeavors.

A distant rumble that went through the building made her squeak briefly as her grip grew white knuckled on the edge of the counter top. "Hate these storms.. This is a bad one.." This time she sounded a bit more fearful. The ion storms created such havoc that she'd seen cities turned to static ridden rubble by them, though those were mostly in the equatorial region, they were far from that.
 
Mario hummed ponderously to himself.

"We should be far enough underground to resist residual radiation from anything that's happened, unless a warhead dropped much closer than any seem to have. I do not think that anything from the refrigerator will have mutated far enough to be autonomous. Mold spores are a significant risk, however."

He paused.

"You have nothing to fear from the storms down here. Not in the immediate future, barring floodwaters. The building's structural integrity is still sound below ground level." Another brief pause. "I was programmed with a rather impressive probability generator, and an adaptable threat-assessment program." He explained. It almost sounded as if he was trying to prove his worth.

"Perhaps you should take some immunoboosters. If symptoms of fungal infection persist, I suggest reducing sugars, grains, and hard cheeses in your diet."
 
Another thunderous shudder made her cringe, remembering what that blue shot of terrible lightning looked like in her mind was enough to create some residual fear. It'd been a long time since it'd nearly killed her, but somehow it still got to her, even when in relative safety.

"Don't mention floods out here. I like my skin still intact. The best feature I had." Her brow cocked at the mention of basically telling her likely her chances of being killed were, not exactly the greatest thing to have in a companion. "Just keep your chances and probabilities to yourself, alright?" Her tone was at least hopeful that he'd heed her word, even when he spoke of fixing her diet. Perhaps he had enough medical knowledge stored away to be useful to a settlement?

"What else do you know about? Like.. Everything or.. Well, everything we knew before the bombardment began?"
 
Her insistence on his silence about the probability generator was disappointing, but if it meant she'd keep him around, he wouldn't bring it up again. "As you wish, Eleanor Stone. I will not waste power on my probability generator. I should point out however that it is a useful tool to be had. With enough information, it can get a relatively accurate read on many given situations. Clean water, weapons stores, old-world technology. Animals too, if they're around."

The question gave him pause.

"I... I can't claim to know everything. Or that everything I was taught was accurate. There is a wide world beyond this one that I had only begun to explore when the bombardment came. My creators had not had the opportunity to teach me anything beyond rudimentary alien language and physiology. My knowledge of human health and medicine was complete and up-to-date fifty years ago, however. Is that what you meant?"
 
"I'll ask if I need my chances." She stated, shivering momentarily despite the warmth that pervaded from outside. Maybe it was the stale air, seeing the inside of the fridge, or knowing that it could calculate her chances of falling over and dying from tripping in here that bothered her. He-- No, it couldn't really see her face, so i t likely couldn't judge her that much.

"Medicine is grand, could care less about the scaleys anyway. They probably helped them kill us." She stated quite angrily. Of course the events had led to severe xenophobia, there was no telling which race had betrayed them. Many people didn't even know why they'd gotten attacked by what were up until the attacks allies and many friends. It was no wonder they didn't like mentioning anything off-world. "Can we find that armory soon? I'm feeling... Naked."

The heat in her cheeks was normal she supposed, even the idea of being outside of her suit had her feeling self conscious. It made her more than a bit angry to, mostly because he was a talking box and not even a real person.
 
Mario perked up when the woman suggested that she'd ask if she needed his probability generator.

"Of course, Eleanor Stone. Exit the kitchen, and take a left. There you will find the painted line that will lead you to the armory once again." For his part, Mario did not harbor any of the xenophobic animosity that was festering within his human counterpart.

"Have I made you angry?" He asked, after a pause.
 
Soon as the words had left his little speaker she hopped off the counter and grabbed him by the handle, pulling him off as she made way for the door. Stopping to grab another delicious cream filled snack along the way, she'd come back for more food and fill what she could before leaving the building. Currently he was her shield and trump card.

"No? Why?" She didn't think she sounded angry at all, a little bit irked her armor was destroyed, but not angry.

The blue-line brought her past another roaming sentry, only imagining where they got their power supply from to be doing this almost fifty years after the facility was likely abandoned. Perhaps she'd be able to come back and catch a few idling and see what she could do with them.
 
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