Mechanical vehicles

Luo Qi retrieved the information precisely from his memory: the man in outdoor protective gear who had been dragging the injured person.

Name: Stendhal

Sex: Male

Age: 28

Ethnicity: Asian

Duties: Base maintenance mechanic, responsible for outdoor terrain surveys, sample collection, base personnel security, structural maintenance, and other work.

Description: An engineer of the River Domain Alliance, positive and motivated, willing to do his part for the alliance.

Stendhal was actually of mixed Asian and white ancestry. His high nose bridge, lean cheeks, and brown hair made the differences between his face and a fully Asian face obvious at a glance.

The base logs showed that Stendhal and his companion had been about to leave on a geological research survey. He had been the first to put on his helmet.

But fragments propelled by the blast wave had struck them both in an instant. In the shaking footage, a fragment hit the instrument panel on Stendhal's chest, knocking him straight to the ground.

The man beside him, however, had been hit in the head by flying debris and died on the spot. The surveillance feed had also cut out because of the flying fragments.

At that point, the base logs listed Stendhal's vital signs as absent—in other words, dead! At the same time, the server had received reports of the others dying one after another.

Yet Stendhal, who had not actually "died," had begun rescuing people. In his panic, though, he had failed to use the proper methods.

Luo Qi had only that final footage. Although all sixteen death reports were present, he was absolutely certain that man had not died in the disaster.

The man had still been able to move then. Would someone who could move freely, who had been selected for off-world development and described as positive and motivated, commit suicide?

Luo Qi discovered a two-day gap in his own logs.

During the disaster, the main computer had shut down to protect its data and prevent damaged circuitry from causing short circuits.

The man at the console had tried to compose and send an emergency report when the disaster struck, but the loss of the communications terminal had prevented it from going through.

"I was careless."

Luo Qi shut off every powered speaker in the base. Fortunately, he had only used the hall's sound equipment earlier.

The 156 cameras remained silently active, hoping to catch sight of that figure.

Luo Qi quietly played the observer while considering things to himself. His experience as a former human told him: never harbor the intent to harm others, but never drop your guard against them.

Even being human on Earth had required him to rack his brains, let alone now that he had crossed the species barrier.

The enemy is hidden while I'm exposed. I shouldn't act rashly.

How can I imitate a computer without giving myself away...

Luo Qi began running simulations. In 0.0001 seconds, the [Emergency Protocol] preinstalled by humans surfaced in his mind.

"In that case, I'll start by becoming the base system and begin my journey among the stars!"

The base system-Old Dad-came online!

"Beep-"

A sharp alarm sounded from the surviving speakers in the area, echoing through the ruins.

Luo Qi began his utterly emotionless performance.

"Main computer system restarting-"

"System self-check complete-"

"Loading base area modules-"

"Main control base loaded successfully. Geological laboratory loaded successfully..."

"Three areas failed to load."

"Air pressure imbalance throughout the base!"

"Severe overall structural damage: beyond repair. Number of deceased base personnel: 16."

"Remaining power: 5%. Space communications module destroyed. Unable to connect to the Water Blue Star homeworld. No authorized command issuer within the base..."

"...System entering automatic mode. Activating emergency rescue protocol."

One of the emergency rescue protocol's triggers stipulated that, once the loss of all personnel was confirmed, the base would immediately generate a self-diagnostic report. After sending its final report, the base system would shut down and await its next activation.

But this computer seemed to have a bit of a problem: someone was living inside it.

No, more accurately, this computer system had turned into a person. It felt rather like some strange object had come to life.

Only an idiot would shut down. It's not like I have to pay electricity bills on another planet.

Luo Qi had to save himself. Save himself.

The database informed Luo Qi that the AI system itself possessed error-correction capabilities.

As a result, the base had only one programmer overseeing the AI, and she had died two days earlier.

Most of the base's scientific personnel were biologists, geologists, and mechanical engineers responsible for base maintenance.

Their primary task was to cultivate oxygen-producing organisms on Orange Star and transform its environment.

After reviewing all his own documentation, Luo Qi had a direction for the future. First, he needed to collect scrap.

Start with one base. Scavenge all your gear from scrap.

He turned his attention to the automated maintenance area. It housed the base's automated maintenance equipment, subordinate units the AI could operate.

There were five maintenance vehicles with two operating modes: remote control and commands.

Remote control: personnel or the base AI could use a signal transmitter to control the vehicles' movements remotely in real time, rather like remote-controlled tanks or mechs.

Commands: specific repair or rescue tasks could be issued to the vehicles. Equipped with intelligence, they would understand the instructions and repeat them back as confirmation.

Once personnel confirmed the instructions, they would begin carrying out the planned tasks. They were quite intelligent.

"I don't even know whether the vehicles are still there!" Luo Qi was extremely nervous. This had been a meteor disaster, after all.

Earth had once suffered a meteor disaster that had brought the age of the dinosaurs to an abrupt end.

Still, Luo Qi couldn't help complaining. "It's already 2054, and a base this advanced couldn't even spring for a high-end humanoid robot."

He wanted a hulking Schwarzenegger type, complete with eyes that flashed and sparkled.

Dismissing his wandering thoughts, Luo Qi prepared to try waking the dormant vehicles.

The vehicles normally remained dormant without emitting electromagnetic waves. Luo Qi needed to try waking them with commands transmitted by radio.

He composed and transmitted a wake-up message. Only electronic devices would receive this long string of radio code.

At the same time, he began disguising himself. Electrical signals traveled through superconducting wires and were converted into sound by the speakers' electronics, using the thin air as their medium.

"Module inspection complete. Emergency rescue plan established. Activating maintenance vehicles-"

A gentle male voice drifted through the ruins, while the vehicles received the commands carried by bursts of electromagnetic signals.

[High-priority electromagnetic wake-up signal received]

[Waking and establishing wireless connection]

[Awaiting new wireless command signal]

[Signal connection successful. Vehicles 1, 2... awaiting signal commands!]

Luo Qi instantly sensed five presences capable of exchanging information with him. They were rigid and stubborn.

[Power on and enter maintenance mode!]

Light slipped into the darkness through a breach in the wall. With a click, dazzling white lamps tore the darkness apart, illuminating rows of tilted shelving.

Assorted parts lay scattered across each shelf. Once neatly arranged, they had been thrown out of place by the quake.

Five rectangular mechanical vehicles stood in a row in one corner of the room.

[Signal connection established. Control authority transfer complete]

Luo Qi connected part of himself to the vehicles. It felt as though he truly had a body-a very strange body!

The camera feed offered a 270° × 270° field of view, allowing him to see the neighboring vehicles.

At the front of each vehicle, a controllable extension arm supported a camera assembly. Five lenses provided views above, left, front, rear, and right.

These "eyes" also had night vision and thermal imaging capabilities. Their only blind spot was beneath the chassis.

Luo Qi adjusted to his new observational capabilities-five sets of them.

The vehicles observed one another while Luo Qi also examined their structural specifications.

Each vehicle measured 1.8 meters long, 0.8 meters wide, and 1.3 meters high. It used a single-drive tracked locomotion system, with a cube-shaped upper body.

Inside that cube-shaped body were folding solar panels, four mechanical arms, three sets of repair parts boxes, interchangeable multifunctional gripper modules, a power battery, and an integrated control unit.

The base fell quiet as Luo Qi took control of the vehicles.

[Hatch control lost]

Luo Qi received some bad news: the vehicles were locked inside the room.

But there was good news, too.

Unlike a reinforced-concrete structure, the base had metal walls built from sandwich panels mounted on lightweight alloy frames.

The metal sandwich panels consisted of two thin alloy skins filled with a gel-like substance. A hollow layer between the gel layers contained a flowing repair fluid.

The repair fluid could automatically seal breaches smaller than three centimeters, while the hemispherical arched framework allowed the walls to distribute external pressure.

Breaking through from the inside, however, was often quite simple.

Under his control, Vehicle 1 rammed the wall at full power. With a thudding impact that shook its chassis, it burst into the light.

Windblown sand and light poured through the hole. Two panels flew out and landed on the sand, while the lightweight alloy supports twisted and fractured.

Vehicle 1 slowed to a stop on the sand. These vehicles really packed a punch.

Because Orange Star's gravity was close to Water Blue Star's, and humans had taken complex terrain and varied tasks into account, the vehicles' power had not been restricted. They had plenty of extra muscle to spare.

Under Luo Qi's control, the vehicles split into two groups: two approached the base's core, while the other three moved away from the base.

In reality, though, all five vehicles were trapped again, this time in a trapezoidal patch of sand enclosed by corridors on all sides.

Luo Qi could no longer spare any concern for those walls. Under his control, Vehicles 1, 2, and 3 began moving toward the solar panel area.

They smashed through the badly damaged sections of the corridors, bravely pushing forward into the wasteland.