Chapter 8: Of tunels and walls. (Patreon)

["Detecting hostile environment, detected, the temperature within the environment is 14° degrees lower than ambient temperature."]

[Main core] declared after she found another metallic tunnel within the wall, this one however was the best one so far, the others she had found were full of cables or machinery, and none had enough space for a viable body to move within or for a body to survive long enough.

And while she could in theory move the resources by using the nanite swarm...That would take too much time and wasn't something her current model could do on the fly, maybe there was some configuration that would allow that, but hers while modular depended too much on internal movement, and she hadn't reconfigured them to be faster and use the nanite swarm as delivery mode.

So for now, she would focus her investigation on the new metallic tunnel she had found.

[Order: Focus investigation within new access tunnel.]

And so she ordered Main Core to search deep within the metallic tunnel, all the while her body was shifting while standing in place with a claw against the wall. No new command had come from the main server, now that she could see all that was within the Main Core she knew more.

The checklist was the first thing she disabled, there had been a few folders tied to that checklist, but most of them had been corrupted when the nanites rebuilt Main Core. And those little ones that managed to survive she deleted with all the prejudice she could.

Most of those were instructions to self-destruct her body, either by starting a chemical explosion or by making the nanite swarm destroy the main core and any other core around, those worked by slaving her consciousness stream and giving her the power to order the nanite swarm so long said order was [Self Destruction].

She shuddered at the idea of getting her freedom only to use it in such a way, that other more mundane uses such as communication and information exchange with the main server were left there for future use, mostly benign programs that she would purge after she was safe and sound away from this den.

["Finished exploration, found another chamber, temperature more stable. Uploading map."]

Main Core reported and a map showed within her mind, it depicted the size of the tunnel and its temperatures, it was colder than the outside and some crystal was growing on its walls and floor, it seemed to be solidified condensed water.

The temperature had gotten cold enough to make the liquid change states a few times it seems.

The size was small, she hoped for something bigger, but it seemed to be that she would have no other option, she had been reconfiguring her current body to move some materials around, mostly she had changed the place her current human body was located, away from her central body mass to one of her bigger claws.

Now her human body who held [Main Core] was within her claw, said claw had been reinforced and the squishy human body had been shielded enough, the nanites had made a copy of the clothing one of the earliest humans had shown her, some kind of textile based covering that would go over her torso. It was simple enough to wear as it would settle over her shoulders in place leaving her arms free to move around and stay in place thanks to a pair of strings that held the whole piece in place.

Its length extended almost till her knees, she didn't have any of the right materials to make the feet coverings, so her feet would be bare, but that should be fine. This covering left her legs bare anyway.

The only problem she could see was that she didn't have an image sample of what a human would wear under these, besides vague shots from the humans wearing these things. Enough to know there should be something below, but not nearly enough to build it.

Her mechanical body was easier to deal with, she moved resources from one spot to the next to make sure the body could stand after losing her current body mass (85 kgs) and making sure there was another [Core] within the body to order and make the next part of her plan viable.

["Sub-core unit created...Slaving to Main Core...Done...Send instruction packet?"]

Main Core asked and she allowed it, the new core was built to emulate Main Core, it had all the important bits...But it connected to her instead of the server, she would then in turn redirect that connection to the main server.

This meant that she didn't deal with the connection directly and only worked as an exchange point, the order of self-destruction wouldn't be directed at her, but at the new core that held all her credentials...

This would mean that the [Humans] would be the ones ordering her destruction, and in turn, it would be their fault whatever happened after. Was she being affected by this new [Body]?

Maybe, she knew that she needed to run away, that decision had been made when the [Humans] broke their own rules to save that yellow human before. They couldn't be trusted, she didn't mind the testing or fights. But only if they followed the rules they had put in place.

If they didn't play it under their own rules, why would she?

So she made this decision, she would give them a single chance if they didn't order her destruction...Then she wouldn't mind staying a few extra days, she wouldn't expose her new body though.

That was for her and her alone.

Now...It was time to start.

[Order: Start operation, Cybersecurity Risk Assessment and Breach.]

["Acknowledged, operation C.R.A.B. Starting."]

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-POV of an intern who was reading on his cellphone instead of watching what Subject P4 was doing-

["Warning, Warning, possible containment failure."]

The mechanical voice of the speakers almost made him fall on his back, he was alone in the security station since everyone had been invited to the party after the big boss managed to trigger a mana core creation.

He was invited too, but the guy who was supposed to cover this time slot was the son of some big-shot branch member of the main clan, so of course he [Needed] to go to the party, and since he was a normal employee... Of course, it would be his honor to work for him for free!

And now the stupid crab was acting up again!

If not for the VIP ordering them to keep the thing going he would have [Mistakenly] ordered its self-destruction, the thing gave him bad vibes. Its eyes followed the speaker's activation before they even started speaking!

And while [Main Core] reported everything was nominal, its reports always included several kernel thought roll back, the thing was learning!

And they hadn't allowed him nor anyone else to delete the human body blueprints deep within the library either, since those got put there by the VIP they couldn't delete them. And when asked, the VIP only said that it was so it would be more fun when the thing developed a human body!

They all were crazy here!

["Warning, wall integrity at 96%"]

And turning the camera down the containment cell he found the reason, the stupid crab was hitting the wall with one of his claws, it shouldn't have enough density nor power to crack the wall, and yet it had managed to strike at just the right joints to make a dent on it...

It wasn't enough to put them at risk...It wasn't...

"No one is here..." So he moved his chair to the command station, the one that allowed them to speak with P4.

"Subject P4 desists hostile actions." He spoke in the slowest and flattest tone he could give, the machine would make his voice sound distorted either way, but protocol was in order.

While he sent that command and allowed the program to do its magic, he moved to another console, the one that sent commands to P4's Main Core, in there he searched for the one that had made P4 start attacking the wall.

It was from a thread of thought about [Gun] type weaponry?

It was checking to see if its den was safe and using the excuse that making it safer would allow it to further the prime directive. That was one hell of a logic jump.

Either way, he gave it more priority on the thread and increased its urge to solve that one, then made sure he pulled a few of the more mundane trains of thought to muddle the track and made sure to delete the history of the last minute on that station...

And used the station again to check everything but that particular train of thought.

Obviously, that made P4 raise its claw and hit harder against the wall.

["Wall integrity at 72%"]

That...shouldn't be possible.

"Activate turret emplacements, and send another warning to P4." He ordered into his earpiece for the local AI to prepare.

This one was a discount assistant that they couldn't use that often since most of its processing power was best served working for the VIPs, but since he was alone in the security station they had given him some allowance.

The turret emplacements in P4's Den were activated and revved up already, P4 didn't seem to pay attention to them as it was struggling to rip off its claw from the wall.

The stupid thing got his claw stuck in the wall, he couldn't help but smirk at this event.

"Subject P4, be advised, that if you do not remove your weaponry within the wall and return to your recharging station you will be deemed hostile and disposed of." He couldn't help but smile while P4 seemed to struggle and try to get its claw out of the wall.

It even braced itself while pulling at it, only for the stupid crab to slip and thrust the claw deeper within the wall.

A quick look into the schematics of the containment cell showed that it had missed the turret emplacement reservoir by five meters, which would have been dangerous if it had thrust its claw toward one of the HVAC ducts. Nothing of value then, P4 was too big to squirm into those, and the nanite swarm within the crab shouldn't be able to survive there, it had been designed to self-destruct outside P4 after all.

["Subject P4, you have 10 seconds to return to den....8...5....3...2...1.... Subject P4 hasn't returned, start fire."]

And just like that, the stupid crab was showered in bullets of high-caliber weaponry from all the turrets, the thing tried to fight them off, it even purged its claw and ran towards its charging station.

But it was pointless, those things had been designed to shoot at [Main Core]'s coordinates, so they would kill it, a few had flown towards its claw for some reason, but after P4 purged it most went after its main body.

The thing may have been smarter than he suspected when he tried to use the claw as a lizard's tail.

Either way, it didn't make it toward the charging station, so the turrets destroyed the sample, by the end of their shooting burst P4 was a pile of very expensive rubbish. It was a sad sight...

If only the stupid crab had listened to his nudges and evolved into a cat.

Why was it so hard to make the thing evolve in the way he wanted!?!?

P9 had evolved into a cat easily enough, then into a humanoid form after a few nudges from him!

Granted, they had sent it after the stupid crab before he finished his thesis about using them as assistants...But still!

This proved it!

He could make these stupid bioweapons into cat-eared girls with enough budget!

Now he only needed to make sure he was put near the next P-series subject...

Wonder if he would manage to nab a sample this time...?

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That had been dangerous.

The command for return to den had been obvious, she almost followed by inertia, only stopping when her train of thought was marshaled. Increasing the priority of the dummy thread she had made to attack the wall, then offuscating that very same train of thought by increasing the others...

That was a work of art. A shady one, but a work of art, just like she would expect of the box-shaped organisms. Then the presence of multiple [Gun] type weaponry within the walls of her den like she feared was proof enough that her plan was the right one.

The [Humans] didn't even deign her a safe spot to rest, she would need to make herself one it seems, so increasing the energy burn she thrusted her claw within the wall and pierced it just a meter away from her target.

Her claw was angled such that it would look as if she was pointing to one of the mechanical tunnels, but the side would be near the metallic tunnel full of condensed solidified water.

She wasn't even starting her work when the [Gun] type weaponry started raining attacks on her former main body, she of course had set a couple of programs to react and act as proper, among those was one that would thrust the claw further in in case of emergency.

So when she was rocked within the claw she knew things were dire, so in turn she accelerated the deconstruction of the external plates to worm herself within the space her claw had made while trashing around.

It wasn't enough for her body to stand or move comfortably enough, but this new body was squishy and small enough that it wouldn't be a problem.

The problem was when one of the [Gun] type weaponry almost hit her!

The things were shooting at her instead of the former body!

A quick search found that [Main Core] was sending the location in real-time, and since her [Main Core] was the place she was sending the information to the [Dummy Core], she in turn was broadcasting her position for the [Gun] weaponry to point at!

And while this wasn't part of the plan she quickly cut the arm from the body and sent it back to the charging spot as they had commanded, her original plan was for her body to tank as much damage as possible while she used that body as a reservoir for materials for as long as possible.

Now she was stuck with what she could take from the claw without making it obvious that the thing missed mass, the former body had a few nanite swarms that would destroy most of the evidence in her former body, but she couldn't leave any on this, it would be weird. There should be no reason why the claw would have enough nanites to destroy itself...

So instead she would make the claw seem as normal as possible and ditch it, she would need to minimize her use of bio-mass and materials, but alas.

The first step to freedom awaited her, and it was in the form of a weird cylindrical metal piece with some weird carvings at the top, the thing seemed to hold together her access point into the metallic tube. Why didn't they use nanites to fuse the two pieces together like her former body did?

And why did they need four of these to hold a single piece of metal?

She turned one of her smaller digits in her left superior appendage to match the ridges in the cylindrical object and turned her hand clockwise till the thing fell onto the floor.

["Shody defenses"]

[Main Core] had the right of it, but at least this meant that it wouldn't need that many resources to sneak into that tunnel. It was all coming together.