AI: Apocalyptic Intelligence (Nivansrywyllian, Windsong)

Status
Not open for further replies.
Mario found his partner laying across the floor from him, in a nest of sundry items. Topless. A strange sensation came over him, and he shut off the viewscreen abruptly. Why was he getting flustered? He knew all about human anatomy. It was nothing he hadn't seen before, in a clinical, professional setting. This was no different.

"S-sorry, I didn't feel you when I woke up. Go back to sleep. You look like you need the rest."

The urge to turn the HUD view back on was almost too great. Almost.
 
With sleep still on the brain she rubbed at her eyes, using the edge of her wrist to avoid getting any dust in them. All she needed was a nasty eye infection to ruin her week. "No, no.. I'm awake.. Just need a nap.." With that she stood, balancing on the box and walking to the helmet to pick it up and bring it to eye level. All she could see was her own reflection of course, but it gave her tired mind a moment to examine where the camera and speakers lay just the same.

"Did you sleep well?" Eleanor quipped, rubbing her eye again with her bare arm as she sat on the edge of a box, speaking to the helmet like it was someone's head to tote around.
 
Mario felt the subtle shift of direction in the helmet. She was holding him. Had she put the remainder of the undersuit back on?

He flicked on the viewscreen, which leaped to life with the image of her naked face, and shoulders.

He was quiet for a moment. He turned his attention to the dream he'd had, where she'd been much more suitably clothed.

"I did. I am well rested, and I likely won't need to sleep again for the next few days. What about you? Did you sleep comfortably? You could have used one of the personal chambers for sleeping. It might have served you better than the nest you made." The suggestion was light, rather than accusatory. He was trying to be helpful.
 
Her eyes drifted to what he called a 'nest', a moment it took to register what it was before she burst into a short and airy fit of laughter. "A nest? I jus' threw--- Yeah, guess it sort of is.." She mumbled the rest, shaking her head as sleep finally began to lose its hold on her quickly waking mind. "Least you're set for a while.. I'm gonna wanna sleep a bit longer than that later on.." Admittedly she needed to sleep much more than the brief hour, a whole night would be amazing.

For now though, she'd stuffed a bag full of food and water tablets in case she decided to leave sometime soon. The time being had her mind wanting to stay there, fix it up, make it home. Just one of the rooms would be enough for her to live out of without issue, a few months to set things up and she'd have sustainable food as well. A pipe dream that could quickly come into reality. "You alright? Your speaker get knocked or something? Could'a sworn you stuttered.."
 
"I'm fine," He insisted quickly, "It might just be that my access to power while the helmet is away from the energy pack is limited." It wasn't, of course, but it was a good enough excuse. Really, he could live out of the helmet alone for days, as long as he wasn't running any of his power-intensive processes, like the suit's camouflage, or shielding.

"Did you explore any of the remainder of the base while I was gone? I don't think any of it would be dangerous to you, as long as you had this helmet with you." A smooth change of subject, he thought to himself.
 
The limited energy seemed like a valid concern to her, the thought hadn't occurred to her when removing it and simply setting it on the box like she had. Using it as a makeshift lantern also had her feeling a tad guilty while he slept, but it was dropped a few moments as her head shook side to side with a smile. "If you say so."

"An' no, I didn't leave the room 'sides to take a leak." A thumb was gestured at the door in the corner to the dim bathroom, eerie as that was it helped that it was clean save for a layer of dust. "Didn't want to risk it without knowing you'd be watching my back. 'Sides, this place is really creepy, all you hear is the sentries rolling by.. "
 
"That all goes away after a while. When the last of my handlers died, the facility scared me too. It was all big, and silent, but for the sentries. And then I started making myself familiar with it."

"Then after a while, it started being the place I lived again. Day in and day out. It's hard to be frightened of a place once you make it your own."

Of course, his home had been his prison.

"Did you dream, Elly?"
 
Gently and without thinking her thumb began idly tracing the lines on the helmet, avoiding dirty fingers on the faceplate as she listened. "No, no dreams this time.." Emerald eyes lay on the door as if expecting it to open, as if it had already. A foolish thought, they hissed loudly, surely it'd have woken her.

"It's good one of us isn't scared here." She was putting up a brave face at least, despite feeling like a scared child with a stuffed animal. Except her animal was a helmet with a mind inside, that was a plus. "Usually better I don't dream, usually don't want to wake up from them." The trailing thumb stilled and she snugged the cool helmet to her bare torso, hugging it tightly.
 
Mario was intimately familiar with the compound. Anywhere he hadn't been able to move, he'd been able to see into for the past fifty years. That defeated a large portion of the mystery for him.

What was new and terrifying however, was being in the midst of a warm embrace by a half-naked woman, and feeling it. And it felt good. But he wasn't going to let that distract him.

"You seem to be um... Very warm. And soft. Are you ill? I can't read your temperature from here."

Perhaps he had overestimated his ability to stave off distractions of the flesh that he didn't have.
 
It wasn't long until the metal began to adjust and grow warm against her skin before she'd begun to doze off again. Only snapped back from it when she realized the brief respite from the stale warm air had grown warm as well.

"I know, my rations consisted of too many sweets and it all went to my gut and butt." She teased with a soft laugh, letting it drift into a tired sigh.

"Not sick, not yet anyway I guess." A shrug followed and she lifted the helmet to eye level, trying to see herself in the reflections. All she noticed was a grungy looking topless and red haired woman was talking to an enviro suit helmet. To an outsider she'd surely look daft. "Just warm in here, Mario. Any chances of getting the air system working before the summer really kicks in? Or does the place stay cooler cause it's underground?" It sure didn't feel any cooler.
 
Taking a firm hold of his impulses, Mario turned off the HUD's viewscreen again. Removed from the oh-so-pleasant distraction, the AI cleared a throat he didn't have, and set about answering his partner's questions.

"It could be achieved, maintaining the air-conditioning here by the time summer comes. This compound does tend to stay cooler, as we are approximately three stories under ground, but even so, sometimes the temperature will become warm enough for human discomfort."

He paused, adding after a moment. "Of course, if you are not pleased with the temperature of your environs, all you have to do is climb into Hexus, and I can regulate the internal temperature up or down."

"Our first priority should probably be the appropriation of the sentries to make the compound safer for you. Our second goal will be maintenance on the solar panels that remain able to be repaired."
 
She found it hard to worry about becoming attached to the curious intelligence know as Mario, at times she'd swear he was a real human pulling strings and speaking into a radio. Most others had her think he was just a confused AI, following and answering human instructions as programmed. Some of it was endearing, others it felt too mechanical and cold to imagine fearing losing it.

"You just want me in the suit again I bet." At least she could still tease the AI. That always seemed to ruffle his silicone or fiber optic feathers.

"I can't live in it indefinitely you know." It was an afterthought she didn't want to say, but felt it might be cleared up sooner rather than later. "As sweet as it is." Gently she placed her lips to the helmet below the visor, claiming her gear needed love and attention as much as any child did. They showed affection back by working properly, he was no exception for now.

"Let's get a sentry. Find the nearest one and tell me what you need to do." By then she was pulling the suit back on, finding it a little less comfortable to out on. For that she blamed her need of a shower.
 
"The suit is a very useful tool. Apart from that, it is my power-supply at present. You certainly don't need to be in the suit at all hours, but there's no reason not to wear it while entering dangerous situ-"

He cut off when he felt the lips press against his faceplate. He'd never been shown that kind of affection before, even during the time before the bombardment.

By the time his mind processed the kiss, she was already beginning to climb back into the suit.

"I-I will need you to use the same cable that you used to transport me from my transport unit, and to plug the helmet into the similarly-shaped port on the back of one of the sentries. There should be one passing by the door in a few moments."
 
Quite quickly was she beginning to figure out what flustered the little AI, it was entertaining too to say the least. At least she was enjoying herself for the time being.

"The worlds dangerous." Came a momentary reply as she made sure the undersuit was on correctly before beginning to out back on the hexus. The process was far easier when it was held in place rather than her having to manipulate every facet of it to manage just her legs.

"Any way to get one to stand still so I can do that? Pretty sure they'll attack me if I try to tamper with it." The helmet slid on without an issue, hissing as the air began filtering over. For a moment she recalled the white flash and the sensation of being cooked alive by the sentry before, something she'd never want to repeat.
 
Mario was -for his part- oblivious to Elly's amusement at his expense.

"The sentries will not attack you while you are wearing the Hexus, with me inside. Regardless," He triggered the building schematics again, and highlighted a rout to another storage area. "This is where dormant drones are kept. Once you hard-line me into one of the sentries, I will be able to do the same with the rest of the sentries over the next few days, remotely."

"Once we have finished there, I will show you the remainder of the facility. It is important that you are familiar with it."
 
A light flickered overhead, growing bright before dimming down to a gentle flickering again. The static of the storm must've found its way in and begun messing with the current. "Sounds easy.." She mumbled as she began following the route given.

No sentries passed this time, it felt a bit ominous to say the least. Somehow she felt relieved when one finally did roll past, an odd lean to it as it moved down it's directed path. Paying her no mind it didn't even pause.

"At least we don't have to manage too many of them. Ones easy enough." Eleanor added as the storage room loomed before her, this one seemed far larger even from just the door already.
 
"Easy enough. It'll take me a minute or so once I'm plugged in, but from there I can open up access to remote control. Then it's only a matter of time before I can access each of the sentries as they come back for maintenance, to access them in turn."

Mario was pleased with himself. He was even more pleased that Elly's knot of emotion had returned when she'd put the helmet on. That was strange.

"Tell me what it's like." Said the AI abruptly. "Out there I mean. Beyond the walls of this compound. I mean, I can see a few feet out of the entry way, and it gives me a fraction of an idea, but I don't really know a thing about what's going on topside."
 
"That makes it easy on me." She replied as the doors slid open, in better repair than most others. Likely from constant use of the sentries coming and going. Inside they were linked up from the rear to their respective ports, a few missing, likely on patrol.

Eleanor gave a jump as a blue glow came from beside her with the rapid buzz if plasma coils spinning up. Her heart in her throat before she saw it was only running a self diagnostic before gliding past her to patrol next.

"It's dead, what's dead is overgrown, if it's not overgrown it's barren. Supposedly new things are popping up. Runners say pods fall from the sky and things get out.. Like they're dumping stuff here. Like garbage.." Her voice trailed as she set to a dormant sentry, plugging it in after fumbling with the port, the rush of adrenaline left her shaky.
 
Mario listened quietly as Elly described the world above. The images that came to mind were brief, but unpleasant. He set his mind to running a diagnostic on the sentry, and checking it's systems. It was functional. He activated the the thing's short-range receiver, and began to rewrite it's programs, and protocols.

"Strange," He said, ponderously. "The Coalition usually doesn't allow people to dump on worlds sustaining sentient life. That suggests that they either thought that humanity died out, or that there are smugglers who offload here for convenience."

The sentry hummed to life.

"Alright. Unplug me, and we can get going. I'll do the rest remotely. Would you like to finish touring the facility?"
 
She looked up from the back panel of the sentry, thick plating that was slightly reflective in to deflect and absorb most of the heat and shock of common energy weapons. When it's power supply began to buzz and it activated she stood back, standing between two more that were in the line as if they'd provide rudimentary cover. "They don't care about us. But no one knows what ships drop them 'cause its from orbit. They say sometimes they drop them off to the ground and dart off, but that's all they are, rumors."

When it began its routine she nodded to his question. "At least the important stuff. Leave me something to explore on my own, it's what I do for a living anyway."
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom
Back