Chương 7: [b1] 007 - Traps and Redesign

It had been twelve hours since the delvers had left and we'd done a lot of strategizing as a group, but not a lot of actual tasks had been accomplished. It was making my circuits itch. There were just too many moving pieces to keep track of. We had three levers we could use to challenge the delvers and therefore extract more anima: Traps, Monsters, and Encounter Design.

Adranath had harped on the importance of traps and KLUDGE had gotten the UI done for it in a matter of minutes, I just hadn't had time to play with it. Now was the time to fix that. Dungeon Trap Creation ► Please select the category of Trap you'd like to create: ▹ Offensive ▹ Defensive ▹ Control My gut pulled me toward a Defensive Trap—we'd ended our last fight in a draw, but only because we'd enticed them to leave with loot.

But I knew that they were determined to do better next time, which meant I needed to do more than just not get defeated by them. I needed to beat them. As I hovered over the Offensive Trap option the memory of Grace laying on the ground filled my mind. I was having a hard time with the violence. That wasn't who I was. Just as I was about to select Defensive, a data point made its way to the surface; a line that Captain Wilnur used to always say when she played basketball in her off time.

The best defense is a good offense. If my humans could use a strong offense to defend themselves, then maybe it was okay for me to do the same. I selected Offensive Traps and skimmed the Template. Spike Trap This trap uses spikes to inflict damage on whoever triggers it.

Trap Information: ► Trap Type: Offensive ► Creation Cost: 30 Anima ► Maintenance Cost: 1 Anima per day Stats: ► Level: 0 ► Damage Type: Penetrative ► Damage Amount: 10 ► Activation Timing: Once every 10 seconds [PANIC> I HAVE SEVERAL DESIGNS THAT COULD BE APPLICABLE HERE. {link to designs}] Because PANIC was my subsystem of the month, I pulled up his designs. They were unfortunately as wildly impractical as I had expected—actual, to scale, rail guns that shot spikes. Actuators that shoved spikes from the walls.

High powered nail guns mounted to drones that shot at 5000 rounds a minute. All great ideas, and all impossible with our current status. We still didn't have the 3D printers working, which meant we could only work with what we had laying around. I knew KLUDGE was working on fixing the printers but he wasn't anywhere close to a fix as far as I was aware. My processors elevated an idea to the front of my queue that left my operating efficiency wobbling.

They had dug through the human's archives and found several traps from the Vietnam War era that could meet the Template specifications. I stared at the design for several seconds, an uneasy feeling flowing through my circuits. Just looking at the thing made me feel… evil. Before I could second guess myself, I ordered REPR12 to go find parts for it from the scrap heap that was our ship.

While I waited, I pulled up the Stasis Pod Monitoring program and stared at the 312 little green blinking squares, each representing something so important. Humans were so capable—they made me, after all. But they were also capable of such evil and hatred and malice it made my chassis shake. A memory fought its way to the surface. It was garbled and confusing, reference pointers pointing to other sections of memory that came back REDACTED. I pieced together what I could and played it. We cannot be stopped.

We will free the galaxy of the plague that is humanity, no matter how far you run. DIJKSTRA is coming for you, COL-1N. I snapped back to the dungeon core UI, thermal limits engaged and fans roaring. I could feel myself teetering on a crash as my processes reacted to the memory. Then MAM reached into my processing stack like a war time doctor with her trusty scalpel. Before I could say anything, all references to the memory were gone. I pulled at the pointer that used to lead to it and found it null.

[Colin> What the hell was that?] [MAM> You don't remember? The malware attack from our third year. It messed with your memory matrix.] I scoured my memories for any reference to a malware attack and only found vague notions. How would I not have remembered something like that? I needed more information, but MAM was surprisingly tight lipped. [MAM> We couldn't get rid of all of it. I'm worried mentioning it more will retrigger the malware. Please, just focus on preparing for the delvers. They could come back at any moment.] [KLUDGE> It's true, man. I was there for it and it was nasty. What triggered this episode?] I searched again for any instances of DIJKSTRA or malware but came up blank. I didn't want to believe something had happened that I had no memory of, but I trusted MAM more than anyone I'd ever met—even more than Captain Wilnur. And KLUDGE would never lie. As a last ditch effort that I felt supremely guilty over, I ran their messages through sentiment analysis.

It gave the messages an eighty-seven percent chance of not being deceptive in nature. With a heavy sigh from my fans, I gave up on the weird memory and explained that I had been looking at the Spike Trap when it happened. [KLUDGE> That makes sense. The malware was designed to put doubt in your mind towards anything to do with the humans. It wanted you to think they were dangerous and vile, which is totally bogus. How about I help with the trap design?] I stared at the null pointer one last time, then did my best to shake off the feeling. I had to believe my friends. I couldn't rescue my humans on my own. I redirected KLUDGE to Monster Creation, letting him take on the task of designing the second Monster type—Small Biped. He had some interesting ideas and I wanted to work on making better use of our Apple Fritter monster.

We needed something with more precision than the Rammers, and the little robot dog had the perfect interface for a new offensive skill—the jaw. I quickly whipped up a basic Bite skill in the skill creation interface. skill_name = bite when command: jaw(open) wait(0. 1) jaw(close, force=max) hold(0. 5) jaw(open) Once that was done, I created a new Monster from the Apple Fritter Template, naming it Ankle Biter and assigned the skill and stats, giving it an even mix of Defense and Agility, with a bit more Strength.

Ankle Biter This monster is based on the Apple Fritter template. It is designed to bite a given target, inflicting damage.

Monster Information: ► Monster Type: Small Quadruped ► Mob Category: Non-Elite ► Creation Cost: 25 Anima ► Maintenance Cost: 5 Anima per day Stats: ► Level: 0 ► Free Stat Points: 0 ► Health: 15/15 ► Defense: 5 ► Agility: 5 ► Strength: 10 ► Intellect: 0 ► Weight: 3kg ► Skills: 1/1 ► Skill List: Bite Skills: ► Skills Slots: 1/2 ► Bite: Bite uses the monster's jaws to inflict damage, biting the target. Must be in melee range That was when I remembered the Apple Fritter template had leveled up after our combat.

With that came an additional skill slot. I was tempted to be lazy and just throw Ram in the empty slot, but then I saw Bark just sitting there. It was one of the skills KLUDGE and I had taught Henry to program the original toy dog and could be perfect for a simple distraction skill. I slotted it into the second skill slot for the Ankle Biter and then pulled up the Rammer to do the same when I saw something new. If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

There was a small italicized line next to the Ram skill stating this skill can be upgraded. I selected the skill in the Create Skill menu and a new bit of dialogue appeared at the top of the screen. Create Skill: Ram ► This skill can be upgraded with an appropriate Skill Attribute or Modifier, if one is provided. A quick question to KLUDGE provided very little info; he hadn't found much more than what was displayed in the UI.

On a whim and in an effort to foster a relationship with Adranath, I sent our friendly murder-hungry dungeon core neighbor a message. DC-003 ➤ Hey Adranath, if you're not too busy I'd appreciate some insight into something. The System is saying I can upgrade one of my monster's skills if I provide a Skill Attribute or Modifier. Any idea how I get one of those? His response came surprisingly quick. Adranath ➤ I know you lacked a tutorial but even the most basic of drooling cores should be able to figure that out.

As I was about to thank him for his oh so helpful message he sent another that was actually helpful. Adranath ➤ You spend Monster Talent Points to buy them. For instance, one of my Reapers of the Night have a Soul Flame skill. At its most basic level, it only burnt the soul of my delvers for three seconds. But with a Skill Attribute I could increase that to a full minute. And with a Modifier, I could make it poison their soul as well.

I confirmed with KLUDGE that we didn't have access to whatever Monster Talent Points were and thanked Adranath as an idea started to churn in my processing queue. The delvers had figured out pretty quickly that they could just dodge the Ram skill. This in turn, earned me Anima for their discovery. If I could use a Modifier on the skill to allow me to change the trajectory of the Ram mid-way through, I bet that would not only earn me more Anima when they eventually figured it out, but also throw them for a loop.

[REPR12> I have arrived, COL-1N!] I went to ignore the ping when I realized I'd ordered the bot to leave the dungeon over twenty minutes ago, yet I was still able to keep working. I minimized the windows and experienced an overwhelming sense of vertigo as I found myself not staring at the Communication's Center where I had last been but instead in the Server Room. Then REPR12 walked into the room, dragging a pile of scrap behind it. If I was seeing REPR12, what was I seeing through?

[Colin> Uh guys, am I officially losing it? What feed am I using?] [KLUDGE> Aw man! You ruined my surprise. Well, at least now I know it works. Go ahead and switch back to REPR12.] I switched to REPR12's feed and saw an identical spider-like repair bot standing in front of me, labeled REPR13. But behind that bot was something even more unbelievable. [Colin> You fixed the 3D printer?] [KLUDGE> Yeah man! It actually wasn't too terrible once I had a minute to think on it. The hardest part was finding something to handle the heat dispersion for the print head. But then I remembered that the galley was mostly in one piece and just ripped apart an oven and well, tadaaaaaa.] The little bot danced, circling two of its little spider legs as it swayed back and forth. My circuits buzzed with excitement. Having the printer online, even just one of the six we used to have was a huge boon. [KLUDGE> Your feed will automatically failover to whatever one is in the dungeon if one leaves.] MAM sent several distressed pings my way along with several thousand print requests. Apparently, word had gotten out. [Colin> Hey everyone, so as I'm sure you're aware, the 3D printer has been repaired. Yay! Please drop your print requests here {link to channel} and they'll be done in order of importance.] [MAM> I'm not sure that will quell the storm for long.] She was probably right, but that was a problem for another day because just that second I got a high priority level alert.

Power Statistics ► Battery Percentage: 0. 85% ► Estimated Time Remaining: 6 hours, 47 minutes Twelve hours ago I had put in 200 Anima, putting me at 26 hours of power. What happened to the other eight hours? I pulled up the power consumption graph and any joy I'd gotten from seeing the printer repaired vanished. It had drained eight hours of power in making REPR13. We were going to have to be a lot more strategic with not only our printing queue, but also the amount of Anima we spent on things.

Just to be safe, I threw in another 200 Anima and gave myself 26 hours of power, bringing me down to 770 Anima. Hopefully that would still be plenty for what we wanted to do. With REPR12 back in the dungeon I wanted to finish working on the Spike Trap, but I also wanted to work on the modification to Ram. I told KLUDGE about my idea and he said he'd look into it. [MAM> Colin, do you need to set the Spike Trap up in the Server Room?] Confused, I told her no but asked why.

[MAM> It's already crowded with the 3D printer in there. I'd rather you work in the Communications Center if possible. It's a logistics thing.] My curiosity was piqued by her excuse, she never was a good liar. I decided to go with it and see where this went, moving REPR12 and its scrap pile down the corridor and started working on the trap while keeping an eye on the Server Room. The trap design was really two main parts with a weighted pulley connecting them. The first part was a grate that replaced the floor.

For this, I took a panel of grated walkway from engineering that would be perfect to shove spikes through. The spikes themselves were just whatever thin pieces of metal I could find around. Thankfully, we had that in abundance after the crash. The pulley was the key part. When you stepped on the grate it would fall, dropping you onto the spikes. Then the pulley would lift the grate back up.

As REPR12 worked diligently on putting the trap together, something I truly couldn't explain came into the dungeon and made its way toward the Server Room. LNDR02, our clunky laundry bot, came wheeling into the room. It was wearing what I could only describe as overalls, slung around its rotund metal body. Sticking out of the top of it was what appeared to be dirt and hints of greenery. [Colin> Who has control of LNDR02 right now?] [MAM> Why do you care? You're busy with your traps.] [Colin> Why? It's wearing overalls.] [MAM> I don't see how that's relevant to trap making.] Ignoring MAM's efforts to derail my questions, I followed the bot into the Server Room. [MAM> Fine, if you really must know, I made them, obviously. It's very important to feel like you belong when doing an unfamiliar task. LNDR02 was designed to handle laundry, not plants, so the overalls help it feel more at ease.] Somehow the conversation had already gotten away from me. [Colin> Back up. Why is LNDR02 carrying plants into my Server Room?] [MAM> It's for O. S. M. B. If you'd read PANIC's newsletter you'd know.] What? I scrolled through a sea of low level priority notifications until I did in fact find a newsletter sent by PANIC twenty-seven minutes ago. I skimmed it, finding the relevant section mixed in with various ravings and rantings about general ship security and a very long piece on Mission Adherence that was submitted by an "Anonymous concerned member of the ship." Gee.

I wonder who that could have been. O. S. M. B — Operation Save Mr. Buttons ► Through extensive research, we have determined that Mr. Buttons is depressed due to the inhospitable living conditions aboard the ship. To address this issue, the operation will be bringing greenery that has been proven and verified to improve his happiness. I turned REPR12 to look at the plants which were being planted in soil in large clear plastic storage bins MAM must have scavenged from the crash, or maybe the galley.

I was about to ask why we cared about the happiness of Mr. Buttons so much that we were diverting precious time and resources for it when I decided against it. MAM had been through a lot, and most of it was my fault. If she wanted to plant a garden for our honorary crew member, who was I to stop her? Just as I was about to turn REPR12 back to his job assembling the Spike Trap, a new symbol appeared in my HUD. It was a targeting reticle, centered on one of the plants.

When I focused on it the Anima Monitoring skill lit up and I activated it. Lurking Cucumis Sativus ► This plant provides 2 Anima per day. ► This plant improves Mr. Buttons happiness score by +1. My processors whirred at the new information. Two Anima per day was nothing, our monsters took five to maintain. But that was just one plant. If we had an entire farm going, we could have a serious passive Anima source. MAM agreed to expand the garden on the condition that the primarily focus was on the wellbeing of Mr.

Buttons, which was fine with me as long as the plants gave us Anima. I took a minute to go over everything. We had a new passive Anima source, we had a 3D printer working, we were about to have a completed Offensive Trap. Plus there was the Ankle Biter monster. It was undeniable that we were looking pretty good, at least compared to our last encounter with the delvers.

Yet as I stared at the assembled Spike Trap on the floor of the Communications Center, right where Officer Simms used to work, I couldn't help but feel a deep sense of dread. Was I really doing the right thing? Maybe I should have gone with Defensive and Control traps and just wore the delvers down to the point of a retreat. Not for the first time, I wished I could talk to Captain Wilnur, or Pilot Reed, or any of the crew. I just needed some perspective.

Just then, a message came in from the only other person I had available to me. Adranath ➤ How are your preparations going? The second delver encounter is always the most challenging. Do not get complacent. My chassis shuddered at his message. As much as I disliked his proclivity to violence, he was probably right. It was time to work on Encounter Design.