Tradewinds 07: Away From Home: XIII

Silence. Or at least as close to silence as it got here. Interrupted by—

A low, distorted voice:

“ALL SYSTEMS ACTIVATING… ACTIVATING… ACT—”

“—SYSTEM FAILURE!”

Then slowed down some more.

“REACTIVATION… CIRCUITS… OFF… LINE…”

Then rapid, high-pitched:

“ACTIVATING-BACKUP-SYSTEMS…”

NK-525 lay sprawled on its side across the hall from what was left of the utility closet in a heap. Limbs crisscrossed, sparks occasionally erupting from various sections of its body. Smoke drifted both ways down the hall.

(POWER LEVEL: 45.4%… SYSTEM RUNNING 23.7%…)

The flames from the closet were already guttering out, guards were spreading out into standard search formations all over the level.

(POWER LEVEL: 47.3% AND RISING…)

Cleaning drones were already arriving on the scene.

“ACCESSING BACK-UP DATA TRACKS…”

“ACTIVATING DIAGNOSTIC SYSTEMS…”

Time for a damage assessment.

(DAMAGE: CRITICAL…)

(ESTIMATE: 30% FUNCTIONAL…)

(WEAPONS: OFF-LINE…)

Not good.

“INITIATING REPAIR SEQUENCE…”

Then back to basics. Intruders…

(OPTICS: OFF-LINE… OVERRIDE…)

Nothing, but snow, and only static on audio sensors, then the hall came partway into focus, followed by heads-up display readouts.

“ACTIVATING BACK-UP MEMORY TRACKS…”

And it all started coming back. The so far unprecedented ambush, the chase, the closet the Intruder had booby-trapped. Then all systems went off-line.

(3 OF 4 BLASTERS BACK ONLINE… SUPER-LASER: OFF-LINE… SENSORS: 42.6% FUNCTIONAL…)

Still not enough.

(POWER LEVEL: 64.8% AND RISING…)

Repair robots finally arrived on the scene and started to work on the hall. Yet, given that rebuilding the closet was going to be a really long-term project on emergency power rations, some of them could be diverted to accelerate the Enforcer’s self-repair rate. Security took priority over all else.

Directive 86: Destroy All Intruders.

(SYSTEM RUNNING: 42.6%…)