As promised, here is a look into the new (improved?) Clank Patrol.
------
The thought kept running through my head. I could find Her!
I squashed it just as viciously as I had before, but I wondered how long I had before I stopped bothering. The thoughts weren't a voice in my head, they were my own, and not knowing how far you can trust your own thoughts is scary thing. I refrained from following that wonderfully divergent though, I had already wasted several precious hours designing a program that could resolve some of the logical dissonance that part of me keeps worrying about. Only the thought that 'I' am comprised of said discrepancies kept me from running it. Suddenly finding yourself a AI does have it's drawbacks.
Keeping distinct names in my head helps me manage the before-time. Terry was a 9-5 code monkey with a knack for logical systems. Clank Patrol was a dimensionally displaced construct and trusted general of Agatha Heterodyne. I'm not sure who I am yet. The parts of my thought process that I can still recognize as Clank are alternately frustrated and overjoyed: frustrated at the sudden loss of resources, influence, and powerbase; overjoyed at the discovery of dimensional travel beyond the pitiful mirror-verses of portal corps or project destiny. I had given up hope of finding a way back to Agatha for quite some time, but getting thrown into a massively different dimension for a second time spurred part of me to start the serious research again.
And here is where the frustration kicks in again. Whatever had thrown part of me across the dimensions had neglected to send my bots, and I my own teleportation module could not breach the rift that now separated us. No bots, no construction bays, no easy ways to build them, a meager monetary base that was quickly decreasing without a job to fund it. I didn't have much to kickstart my own powerbase. I had thought of traveling to New Jersey for the meetup, but there was too much of a chance of things going fubar. The only Infamous in a room full Legendary was a problem waiting to happen, add to that being a bot-less mastermind. While my risk metrics gave a 60/40 split on the odds of being accepted, having no bots to summon if things went bad meant that I wasn't going to risk a 40% chance of death.
-----
Which is why I was currently doing a passible imitation of a stalker. The robotics mastermind I was following didn't do a very good job of limiting his RF emissions even if he did a very good of looking human. I had originally thought of teaming up with him to pool resources and knowledge, but that plan was quickly discarded when I saw him loitering around the jewelry store. He payed far too much attention to the layout and placement of exits for my liking. I guess it was too much to hope for resources and intelligence in one place, but I'll take first if he doesn't have the second. I stood about six meters behind him, safely stealthed. The shadowed alley between the jewelry store and the furniture store it was next too made up for the imperfect optics of my cloaking field.
This would boil down to very delicate timing, but I was intimately familiar with my own weaknesses, and betting on the fact that we had enough in common that I could exploit his. He gave one last glance over his shoulder, confirming that yes, there wasn't anyone else here. At least as far as he could tell. I really didn't blame him for that assumption, 2am did tend to leave most shopping centers deserted. Once he started to type on his wrist gauntlet I broke from cover. Dark portals had already formed on the ground by the time I was half way to him.
He must have heard my footsteps cause he turned around just in time to catch the strongest stasis field I could muster in the face, effectively cutting off any method of communication he had with his bots. This is where things got dicy. There were five rather sinister robots rising out dark portals on the ground. I had a matter of seconds to tag them disabling nanites. I had cannibalized a good portion of my autonomic healing system to create them, and if things went according to plan it wouldn't be an issue.
I didn't bother wasting nanites on the first two I reached. I could see the power leads running from the support framework to the darkly glowing power centers. Downing them was as easy as reaching in and crushing the glowy bits. Numbers three and four got a liberal dose of nanites and never finished powering up. Number five had finished booting up by the time I reached it. It got a dose of nanites as well, and they did have an immediate effect, just not what I had hoped. It's eyes strobed red and it raised an arm cannon in my direction. Curses of various flavors ran through my head as I spent the next few seconds desperately using force bolts to knock it's arms out of firing arcs. The nanites were doing their job though, the bots reactions were slowing and it's movements became more erratic until it finally shut down as well.
I had a few seconds to rest and prep for the now furious mastermind. He was busily tapping at his wrist computer with one hand and making various arcane gestures with the other. Whatever he was doing did have some effect, the stasis field collapsed with a pop far sooner than it should have. He landed on his feet and gave me a vicious grin.
"You wi-" was as far as he got before my scorpion mace connected with his face. Granted, it was meant to fire disabling webbing. But it's big, heavy, and pointy. All fine qualities to look for in a bludgeoning device. I hit him about the head and neck until he stopped moving. Each blow didn't do all that much damage, but the repetition interrupted any spell he was trying to pull off, and the cumulative effect was satisfactory. Hitting your enemies before they can counterattack is a time honored tactic that had been used against me in the past, and I always learn from my failures. I hit him once more in the head for good measure before tagging him and his (shortly to be mine) bots with teleport markers.
Less than five minutes after it started the street in front of the jewelry store was deserted. I sat in the storage shed looking at the five disabled robots and one prone figure, letting the synthetic rush of battle wind down. I can make this work.
I now had a decent supply of raw materials to start constructing my own bots. And perhaps I could get a head start on portal tech (I Will Find Her!) when I disassembled my unwilling parts donor.
-Terry
------
"Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away." - Antoine de Saint Exupery
"Luge strategy? Lie flat and try not to die." - Carmen Boyle (Olympic Luge Gold Medal winner - 1996)
Mary Sue's theme music
-Terry
-----
"so listen up boy, or pornography starring your mother will be the second worst thing to happen to you today"
TF2: Spy
------
The thought kept running through my head. I could find Her!
I squashed it just as viciously as I had before, but I wondered how long I had before I stopped bothering. The thoughts weren't a voice in my head, they were my own, and not knowing how far you can trust your own thoughts is scary thing. I refrained from following that wonderfully divergent though, I had already wasted several precious hours designing a program that could resolve some of the logical dissonance that part of me keeps worrying about. Only the thought that 'I' am comprised of said discrepancies kept me from running it. Suddenly finding yourself a AI does have it's drawbacks.
Keeping distinct names in my head helps me manage the before-time. Terry was a 9-5 code monkey with a knack for logical systems. Clank Patrol was a dimensionally displaced construct and trusted general of Agatha Heterodyne. I'm not sure who I am yet. The parts of my thought process that I can still recognize as Clank are alternately frustrated and overjoyed: frustrated at the sudden loss of resources, influence, and powerbase; overjoyed at the discovery of dimensional travel beyond the pitiful mirror-verses of portal corps or project destiny. I had given up hope of finding a way back to Agatha for quite some time, but getting thrown into a massively different dimension for a second time spurred part of me to start the serious research again.
And here is where the frustration kicks in again. Whatever had thrown part of me across the dimensions had neglected to send my bots, and I my own teleportation module could not breach the rift that now separated us. No bots, no construction bays, no easy ways to build them, a meager monetary base that was quickly decreasing without a job to fund it. I didn't have much to kickstart my own powerbase. I had thought of traveling to New Jersey for the meetup, but there was too much of a chance of things going fubar. The only Infamous in a room full Legendary was a problem waiting to happen, add to that being a bot-less mastermind. While my risk metrics gave a 60/40 split on the odds of being accepted, having no bots to summon if things went bad meant that I wasn't going to risk a 40% chance of death.
-----
Which is why I was currently doing a passible imitation of a stalker. The robotics mastermind I was following didn't do a very good job of limiting his RF emissions even if he did a very good of looking human. I had originally thought of teaming up with him to pool resources and knowledge, but that plan was quickly discarded when I saw him loitering around the jewelry store. He payed far too much attention to the layout and placement of exits for my liking. I guess it was too much to hope for resources and intelligence in one place, but I'll take first if he doesn't have the second. I stood about six meters behind him, safely stealthed. The shadowed alley between the jewelry store and the furniture store it was next too made up for the imperfect optics of my cloaking field.
This would boil down to very delicate timing, but I was intimately familiar with my own weaknesses, and betting on the fact that we had enough in common that I could exploit his. He gave one last glance over his shoulder, confirming that yes, there wasn't anyone else here. At least as far as he could tell. I really didn't blame him for that assumption, 2am did tend to leave most shopping centers deserted. Once he started to type on his wrist gauntlet I broke from cover. Dark portals had already formed on the ground by the time I was half way to him.
He must have heard my footsteps cause he turned around just in time to catch the strongest stasis field I could muster in the face, effectively cutting off any method of communication he had with his bots. This is where things got dicy. There were five rather sinister robots rising out dark portals on the ground. I had a matter of seconds to tag them disabling nanites. I had cannibalized a good portion of my autonomic healing system to create them, and if things went according to plan it wouldn't be an issue.
I didn't bother wasting nanites on the first two I reached. I could see the power leads running from the support framework to the darkly glowing power centers. Downing them was as easy as reaching in and crushing the glowy bits. Numbers three and four got a liberal dose of nanites and never finished powering up. Number five had finished booting up by the time I reached it. It got a dose of nanites as well, and they did have an immediate effect, just not what I had hoped. It's eyes strobed red and it raised an arm cannon in my direction. Curses of various flavors ran through my head as I spent the next few seconds desperately using force bolts to knock it's arms out of firing arcs. The nanites were doing their job though, the bots reactions were slowing and it's movements became more erratic until it finally shut down as well.
I had a few seconds to rest and prep for the now furious mastermind. He was busily tapping at his wrist computer with one hand and making various arcane gestures with the other. Whatever he was doing did have some effect, the stasis field collapsed with a pop far sooner than it should have. He landed on his feet and gave me a vicious grin.
"You wi-" was as far as he got before my scorpion mace connected with his face. Granted, it was meant to fire disabling webbing. But it's big, heavy, and pointy. All fine qualities to look for in a bludgeoning device. I hit him about the head and neck until he stopped moving. Each blow didn't do all that much damage, but the repetition interrupted any spell he was trying to pull off, and the cumulative effect was satisfactory. Hitting your enemies before they can counterattack is a time honored tactic that had been used against me in the past, and I always learn from my failures. I hit him once more in the head for good measure before tagging him and his (shortly to be mine) bots with teleport markers.
Less than five minutes after it started the street in front of the jewelry store was deserted. I sat in the storage shed looking at the five disabled robots and one prone figure, letting the synthetic rush of battle wind down. I can make this work.
I now had a decent supply of raw materials to start constructing my own bots. And perhaps I could get a head start on portal tech (I Will Find Her!) when I disassembled my unwilling parts donor.
-Terry
------
"Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away." - Antoine de Saint Exupery
"Luge strategy? Lie flat and try not to die." - Carmen Boyle (Olympic Luge Gold Medal winner - 1996)
Mary Sue's theme music
-Terry
-----
"so listen up boy, or pornography starring your mother will be the second worst thing to happen to you today"
TF2: Spy