Chapter 5: Lieutenant, that is not how it's done.... (Patreon)

["Wake Up Protocol Initiated"]

It woke up with a jolt, its main core having produced a jolt of electricity to all its muscles to wake them up from torpor. It had never bothered that form of waking up before, since that allowed it to work at full throttle from the start but using a jolt of electricity to wake up instead of stretching was getting annoying, even if doing so saved precious seconds in favor of efficiency.

["Detected high level of cortisol in bloodstream…Evaluating possible danger in Den…"]

So why was it that it found itself annoyed right now?

["No hostile individuals nor other test subjects detected."]

It felt even more annoyed at its own [Core], but it also couldn’t argue against its directives, for it had been made for efficiency, and allowed it to move and be ready at a short notice. Why its appendages were working and ready, even if the pain receptors that it had deleted the night prior had already been remade…

["Notice: Pain receptors are fundamental for monitoring current status and primordial for a steady evolution, so they are important and can’t be removed."]

Even so, it was outside its normal waking hours, which meant something was going on. A quick search in its main core found no new instructions that deemed a wake-up protocol, so it was confused.

It still did all its morning checkups and left the [Main Core] processing the testings while it stretched its legs, this was both to test that all the new nerve endings worked as needed...And because stretching seemed to release a rush of dopamine in its system.

It really liked how that felt.

["Notice: Combat test starting in 420 seconds."]

[Subject P4, prepare for testing.]

Both the [Main Core] and the [Box shaped organism] said almost at the same time, interesting... The [Main Core] seemed to have direct access to the testing type it would have...

But it had never stated the type of testing nor the time for start, testing if it was accurate, it started a series of tests that would take just above the limit of 420 seconds, to be precise it would leave it going 27 seconds above the limit mark.

Before it wouldn't do such a thing, since starting a test while it was doing one of these would mean wasted energy...And doing so for a combat test?

["Preposterous."]

It would be beyond dumb, it would be.

["Stupid."]

Sure enough at the point that it would have started to prepare its body to burn the biggest amount of energy the box-shaped organism spoke again.

[Subject P4, combat testing starting in 15 seconds.]

Usually, it would have to waste that energy and seethe at the expenditure, leaving it not only in bad condition for the combat test, but also in a deficit, since the box-shaped organism would let it eat the opposite subject, but that would still leave it with less than it had spent...

But since it didn't commit the energy...

["Joy: Feeling happy about a scheme well achieved."]

The dopamine rush made it skitter towards the door, preparing for a combat testing that would surely end with a good result, it hadn't wasted the energy even though its logs would surely file that it had started the event.

Its [Main Core] was still somewhat disconnected, while its nerve ending still existed and still went through the [Main Core], most of its processing occurred in the [Brain], and it used the [Main Core] only to serve for the more...[Complex calculation] it required, and most of the [Strategy] and movements worked from the [Brain].

And as such, when the door opened and it allowed it to rush into the arena...It skidded to a halt at what it was seeing, not believing its [Sens..] its [Eyes] it pinged its [Main Core] for a further evaluation using all its sensory capabilities.

It even burned some of the energy it had as extra for good measure.

["Warning: Human detected...No Test Subjects in the area...From the known P0-P9 Series...."]

[“Subject P4, today your opponent will be Lieutenant…”]

Started saying the box-shaped organism, but it was stopped by "Stop bothering Doc, not like the crab understands you." The...[Human] started berating the box-shaped organism and calling it [Doc].

That was a [Title]?

Or was this the name of the box-shaped organism?

[“We must stick to regulations, Lieutenant...Even if you ended up there as a ‘punishment’ you still need to follow…”]

The box-shaped organism didn't seem to be happy with this...[Human].

"Yeah yeah, I get it Doc...Just...Start the thing okay, I don't have all day." Said the [human] on the other side.

[*sigh* “P4, the test is a combat test against a Humanoid armed target. You may proceed as usual.”]

["Notice: Combat test logged, starts in 18 seconds."]

[Rules of Combat:

1) The test ends if Subject P4 is incapable of combat.

2) The test ends if Subject P4 is destroyed.

3) The test ends if Subject P4 breaks containment, this will result in activating countermeasures in Main Core.

4) Test ends if Subject P4 self-destructs, if Main Core detects this it will roll back through Kernel and eject Main Core.

5) The test ends if Subject P4 manages to defeat enemy.

6) Test ends if Subject P4 manages to kill enemy.]

Its [Main Core] put another checklist in the back, now that it could observe its working from afar it became obvious that whoever had made it had a thing with checklists...

And that it had gained some complicated thought process after assimilating this [Brain], at least it had managed to purge all the information it held on personality and emotion-wise things. If not it would have probably tipped its hand? No… it's claw, humans had hands. And it wasn’t a human, it was a superior bio-engineered weapon, it had a fine pair of claws.

[“Test starts in 5...4...3....”]

Somehow they started a countdown...The box-shaped organism never did that.

It noticed how the [Human] however, was doing weird movements where it tested the limits of its own appendices, had it not done the correct testing before?

It took stock of it taking the chance to get more information.

["Recording new data on humanoid phenotype."]

That human was dressed in what appeared to be a full-bodysuit covering, its whole body was covered by a black textile-looking cover, and some parts held chitin-like hard exteriors of darker colors.

Its tactile appendages were covered in the same dark color, and the back of that appendage held some kind of chitin-like protector too, its torso held the biggest plating followed by its sensory appendage...Or what its brain deemed as [Head].

That held a spherical covering that didn't allow any part of the [Face] to be seen, on its hand a handheld tool made of black shining material, its design seemed to be a long elongated cylinder with a few places where the [Hands] could grab it. At the rear of it was a rugged type of stock that seemed to be designed to be placed against its [Shoulder].

It had seen this type of tool before, some of the same phenotypes of [Humans] carried sometimes when they needed to do [Maintenance] and it was needed for it to stay awake during the process.

By the fact that they seemed to need to [Point] it towards it...And that after every [Thought Reroll] it had found evidence of internal wounds...It had deemed that as a [Weapon]. But since the [Information] of how it worked was always deleted from its [Core]...

It wasn't sure how that worked.

[“...3...2...1...Test Start”]

["Notice: Combat Test start, disabled protections against harming personnel."]

It got distracted by half a second by the double notification, not enough to be important against another P-series subject...But it proved almost fatal in this instance.

*Bang*

And it was only the sound that saved it...

The sound and its [Main Core].

["Warning: Danger to Core detected, emergency dodge initiated."]

For its [Core] moved the body before it could process what had happened, its body rocketed itself to the right using more energy than needed, but even so...

"Oh...It dodged...Didn't you say that you deleted the information about guns from the crab's memory?" Was what the [Human] said.

["Yes, but its core still deemed the Rifle as dangerous since we can't delete its presence from memory, and it has been used against it before, so P4 knows these can hurt it since it has some wounds after we use to disable it."]

One of its legs was leaking, with a small hole in it, its diagnosis screamed at the damage, and were preparing to seal the leak and cover the outer plating.

[Order: Deny new cover plating, focus on staunching the leak.]

["Warning: New directive stands against prime directive Grow(Survive)"]

[Query: Can the plating survive against the Gun?]

It queried back at the [Main Core], it made some quick calculations from its encounter and in the millisecond all this happened it started to move.

["Answer: No. New directive accepted."]

The [Human] also started to run in a slow jog trying to keep its distance, but it was slow...All that armor didn't help in mobility, it still had the superior design.

["DANGER!"]

Of course, it seemed these [Humans] were adept at using tools, it threw a spherical object after taking something out of it.

The [Main Core] detected it as a potential danger, and it was inclined to believe it since the last non-threatening tool it had used was able to penetrate its reinforced chitin with plating armor.

So it started to dodge.

["Start dodging towards the left, using spring-loaded design for quick evacuation."]

Its [Main Core] in tandem with its plan provided the right plan of action, so it quickly pumped the hydraulic injectors in its legs for a quick jump and dodged to the left with a jump.

Now here is where things started to turn somewhat dangerous.

First, the round object landed where it had stood before, that was fine and all, the problem was that after it landed, no more than half a second later it exploded sending rocks and dust all around.

It raised a veritable cloud of dust that impeded most of its visual sensors (Eyes) from seeing anything, and the loud sound impaired its auditory receptors (ears) since those would need to be recalibrated.

And if that wasn't enough, the [Human] had sprayed its [Gun] towards the place it had dodged!

Almost as if he had predicted where it would go. The gall!

Thankfully the explosion had rocketed its jump and made it awkward to land without visuals, so it had flopped onto the floor and was in turn, way lower than it should be, so most of those [Guns] attacks traveled above its body.

But it was still...

["Way too dangerous."]

So taking this opportunity where the [Visuals] were impaired it turned to its next strategy to attack.

["Use the cloud dust, travel to the right of the Human, and attack from the back with a surprise attack."]

Yes, it would use the same strategy that those small furred creatures sometimes did, it hadn't been able to eat one of those orange shaped furred creatures as they were too fast to run away from it...But their ambush strategies were quite helpful.

So it slowly skittered near the ground without making as much sound as possible.

[“Lieutenant, try to not raise too much dust, we can't see a thing.”]

"I CAN'T SEE EITHER AND YOU DON'T SEE ME COMPLAINING!" Spoke between them the [Human] and the box-shaped organism.

That was good for its plan, it would allow the ambush to work better if the box-shaped organisms distracted it.

["Estimated area of Human from shots fired 3 meters forward, 35°Grades to the right. Jump in 3...2...1..."]

Its [Main Core] started the direction and countdown so it faithfully followed the instructions.

VICTORY!

And jumped using all the might of its front claws to rain down against the [Human]!

*CRASH*

And it felt...Nothing?

Was the chitin-like armor of it too resistant?

It didn't feel resistant as a normal meat bag type of organism...

Were humans the same in that they had a chitin-like exterior? Their [Skin] seemed to imply that they held their skeleton in the interior though...

*Ratatatatatata*

["DANGER!"]

["EMERGENCY DODGE, 300% ENERGY BURN!"]

Its [Main Core] screamed as it suddenly burned almost half of the energy it had saved!

But it was needed as the sound of the [Gun] attack sounded to the right of where it had jumped from. Half of those managed to hit home and left it wounded all over, it had leaks in most of its external armor...And it had started using the parts that would be usually used to replace external cover armor to patch...

["Dangerous situation, escape route 4 in execution, zig-zag pattern run starting towards north-east area of combat arena..."]

The [Main Core] still prepared the most optimal route of escape, that would give it cover to escape too, allowing it to...

"Oh no, you won't!" Said the human who threw another of those ball-like tools!

Straight towards its route of escape even!

HOW?!?!?

["Re-evaluating...Escape route 7, dash south..."]

It started shooting before its body even started moving...In the direction, its main core had said to run...

Wait...

["Re-evaluating...Escape route..."]

It tuned out [Main Core] and didn't move, severed the connection towards the muscle endings that allowed [Main Core] to help move the body, it would impair its movement...But...

"What the hell, this thing bugged out?" Said the [Human] while he started shooting in the latest direction its [Main Core] had proposed...

"Doc, your toy broke!" And then it shot at one of the box-shaped organisms even!

["It still receives telemetry from Main Core...You might have damaged some nerve endings, let me ping Main Core..."]

["Notice: Ping received from server admin...Running diagnosis...."]

["Wait till the telemetry ends...Remember, we don't actually want P4 to be destroyed, just push it to its breaking point..."]

THE GALL!

THE BASTARDS!!

["Warning: High concentration of Cortisol in the bloodstream..."]

[Query from Main Core: "Reconnect nerval endings to allow assisted maneuvers?"]

[Main Core] pinged it back turning its attention towards the box-shaped organism...

They wanted to kill it...To push it to a breaking point...Why?

Hadn't they been fair in their testing so far?

If they didn't want it to keep it around...

Then what reason did it have to stay and play under their rules?

[Order: Start Virtual Machine, simulate current status, and send those signals towards Main Server]

["Acknowledge...Building Virtual Machine...Sending telemetry from Virtual Machine."]

["You had one lucky shot and hit Main Core, that was what gave the false positives, it has been fixed now. Continue stress test..."]

"And if the things kick the bucket...?" Said the human while something fell from its [Gun] to the floor, a black box-like thing with some small cylindrical things.

["Then that's it for P4, we want to make sure it can survive live scenarios in warfare areas, it doesn't work for us if the thing doesn't survive a single opponent."]

"Don't come crying to me then because I broke your Toy Doc ♪" The human pointed its gun towards where it was.

It had learned quite the interesting things from that...

[Query from External source: "Current Strategy?"]

["Answer Query?"]

Yes, feed it the current suggested strategy and display it on the main consciousness stream.

["Rush in 86° Angle and throw rocks to hide vision, then jump and do a body slam. Body Mass should be enough for fatal damage."]

It started moving as soon as the strategy from [Main Core] in the Virtual Machine was done, it was starting to feel the missing help from it already. Its movement while more fluid...It was clumsier and ragged.

Its leg kicked rocks all around that it would usually dodge, this burned more energy than needed, but the [Human] didn't seem to notice...and that was good for its plan.

When it arrived at the rock the human was already pointing to the predicted travel of the rock from [Main Core] in the [Virtual Machine], and it could even see how one of its [Fingers] was moving to start shooting.

["Perfect"]

And as soon as the [Human] turned his face towards where the rock would fly...It acted.

["Burning 300% energy...Rush Overdrive."]

It put its legs into overdrive flooding them with as much energy as they could hold and dashed forward with care, the human didn't seem to process what was happening.

[“DODGE!”] Said the box-shaped organism.

That was weird, they had never cared for its safety, but it was too late to dodge anyway, it would take its pound of flesh from this [Human] no matter the costs.

Its claw was already going for the kill, it had decided to use a strike towards the hand that used the [Gun] trying to incapacitate it first and to keep running away from the human.

It wouldn't do to overcommit on the first test run even if it seemed to be successful...

["WARNING: EMERGENCY LOCKDOWN FROM SERVER ADMIN DETECTED. TURNING DOWN CPU ALLOWANCE."]

It was too late now, its momentum was too big for a stop, not even it could stop itself.

["Notice: High level of dopamine detected, high levels of adrenaline detected."]

"MOTHERF..." And the sound of a crack, as the body of the [Human] flew backward, it was a heavenly sound for its sound receptors.

It would save that for later, the [Human] had activated something on its body armor as some type of [Flame] had activated and that propelled him away from it.

But it had felt the connection of its attack, and more importantly...

["Notice: Gun acquired."]

The tool that it had used was now stuck on its claw, the thing had some kind of strap that its claw had managed to grab on the attack...

[Warning from server admin: “Do not...]

It put that thing in its mouth and crunched down on it.

[...eat the gun...GOD DAMMIT P4!”]

["Notice: Acquired new blueprint...Error...Blueprint blocked by system administrator."]

Tch...

"Hey, Doc...I think your crab is smarter than you said it was..." Said the human who was nursing one of its arms...

It seemed that humans could bend their arms quite far backward...Wonder why it sounded like a crack then?

["I will be not responsible if this test continues Lieutenant...”] Said with an obvious inflection on the Lieutenant part the box-shaped organism.

But it was already preparing for its next attack...It would [Eat] that [Human]...And maybe some part of the box-shaped organism that had been shot by the [Gun] too.

It needed the phenotype of the [Humans] if it was to advance its planning...It didn't appreciate how they hadn't followed the [Rules] they had set up for these testings...

It was time to expand the hunting range.

["Please follow the instructions."]

And it was time to deal with [Main Core].