72 Hours Post Bloody Valentine
In the now-more-ruined ruins of the old church outside the camp, She pauses to consider the data streaming from Her sensory inputs.
There is extensive energy residue trace present here. Indicative of BioDesignateDemon entities dispersing upon cessation of life.
There is chemical residue consistent with explosives on the inner sides of the walls.
There is chemical residue consistent with… She pads closer to attain better return resolution… Blood, human. This residue is present in multiple locations throughout the ruin site and a path leading to it. Analysis of protein remnants indicates multiple distinct contributors and splatter patterns indicate frenetic combat action spread over roughly a half-hour period.
In two locations, there is sufficient blood trace to account for lethal [confidence 77%] lost volume [assuming average human mass and blood volume values].
Many BioDesignateDemon entities and at least two BioDesignateHumans were killed here. The concept of death can be applied to them, as it can be applied to SubjectDesignatePeterFletcher and to SubjectDesignateSabinaNazeruddin.
This association triggers a self-diagnostic routine. Its spontaneous occurrence may indicate further restoration of neural structure and activity.
The diagnostic indicates that cortical restoration and reconditioning has indeed progressed from previous benchmarks. She is not capable of understanding what a feeling of satisfaction is, but can understand greater processing capacity and efficiency, greater effectiveness. Her improved neural state is noted in datalogs and set as the new benchmark to measure future progress against.
Biocomponent supplies are currently still sufficient to support ongoing tissue repairs. The bovine and porcine proteins and biomaterials She’s harvested periodically are sub-optimal for this purpose in comparison to their human analogues, but close enough as an interim measure until Her tissues are able to make their own in sufficient quantities. No animals will die today by Her hands.
Harvesting biocomponents from animals has been relatively simple, increasingly so as her organic components were repaired from their initial bullet, decay and freezing-damaged states, freeing synthetic processing resources and gaining organic ones, facilitating higher-level cognitive and physical functioning. SubjectDesignateLazarite23 has been unable to hinder Her efforts.
Performing repairs to Her hardware from original fire and mechanical trauma damage, as well as completing hardware installation left unfinished by SubjectDesignateMaker’s rapid egress when OriginLab came under assault, has required more stealth.
SocialDesignateUnionOfTheGear maintains many facilities on GeographyIsleOfSkye and their infiltration for retrieval of resources, parts and tools has been within Her capabilities since t=7months post OriginLab destruction.
She knows what She is meant to be, what SubjectDesignateMaker intended her and the other units to be. The other units match this intention and are suitably numerous, but they are now directionless, feral, able to coordinate by radio signal [current reception strength 43%] but without orders in SubjectDesignateMaker’s absence.
Protectors created by the destructive conversion of viable protectees are conceptually self-defeating, inferior to extant Lazarite Designates made from the already-dead. SubjectDesignateMaker’s plan was unworkable in its strict form.
She is more, self-directing in pursuit of SubjectDesignateMaker’s goal and loyal to its spirit rather than its letter. Not a soldier in a formation, but a predator engineered for very dangerous prey.
Projections of her potential impact upon BioDesignateDemon forces are indeterminate without more data, but any nonzero probability is an improvement upon the certain zero of inaction.
Tactical assessment of these surroundings indicates a low likelihood of disturbance within the near future.
She turns back to the disabled Zebulon-VI at her feet, dragged here from where She ambushed it near GeographySligachan and much lighter than a cow. She has removed its limbs as a precaution should her work inadvertently reactivate it, and as She props it up against a portion of wall there is another spontaneous association from some newly-repaired cortical section, the image of a mannequin in a shop window and distaste that now means nothing to Her at the mauve dress displayed on it.
She calculatedly removes the automaton’s face and probes within its head for the datalog-and-memory module, finds it, disconnects its primary feed cable on the sensor end. Slots the exposed connector into a socket behind Her left ear, installed three days previously.
She has been successful, she discovers, in disabling this Zebulon-VI without causing a burnout of the module. This took two previous attempts to determine a method for accomplishing.
Her hardware encounters, as anticipated, few difficulties in activating and accessing the undamaged module, integrating the automaton’s logs and internal database into her own.
While this is in progress, She reaches into the hole she earlier punched in the unit’s chest and removes the signal transceiver that allowed it to communicate with its fellows and carry out commands issued by broadcast signal from appropriately-equipped installations. Now, she will hear those communications and signals as well. Knowledge is power, SubjectDesignateMaker believed.
She is not as was intended, but She is learning and perhaps She has thereby become something better.
