I was in the forest in minutes, outside of cultivated land. It slowed my progress dramatically — were the terrain flat the entire distance, I probably could have arrived in 20 minutes.

This suited me better anyway — I needed access to more mana. The thermal sensors overlaying my radar found it nearly instantly. I shot at a 90-degree angle into the woods, sliding as I decelerated towards a wolf den in a small cave. I stepped inside, making no effort to hide my presence.

The wolf barked, rising to its feet as it slowly woke. It stood as high as my chest — far larger than a wolf should be — before I drove my prybar through its neck and into the ground, pinning it.

It bucked, howling and whining.

///ENERGY DRAIN

I watched carefully for signs of physical damage appearing on the wolf. The HP bar would drain to fill my energy, which implied that the wolf took damage from the action.

My visual sensors detected nothing, but smell and thermal quickly located the change occurring to the wolf. Twisted pathways of septic flesh spread outward from my prybar, the wolf rotting to death even as it thrashed against my hold.

///ENERGY FULL

The wolf lived, despite both the puncture on its neck and the creeping necrosis taking over its flesh. It had stopped struggling, its eyes deep and glazed. I removed the prybar from the ground, carrying the wolf with me as I advanced. I had to act quickly over the night while Tobias slept. Once he was awake, I would have to be around him constantly to prevent him from doing something stupid.

Humans always did something stupid.

I carried on through the woods with a full charge — enough for 9 shots and a successful retreat, plus additional charge from the wolf I was carrying as a back up body. I was as prepared as I could be to face any threats.

I carefully noted caves and locations that seemed to house living animals or monsters, cataloguing their shapes via radar and temperature measurements. Some of them reported heat levels far above the recorded maximum for any known life-form.

My thermal sensors may need calibration.

I broke through the treeline 32 minutes later and arrived at AI615 some 5 minutes after that.

AI615 was in shambles. She had landed on a flat plateau in a grassy plain, the kilometers long ship dominating the horizon like a mountain of painted and rusting steel rising from the earth. Nature worked rapidly to reclaim her; she sunk into the ground several feet. She rested at an angle, leaning forward toward me. Moss and vines creeped up the side. Where her shadow fell, the earth turned to mud.

Holes perforated the side of the ship. There was a hole where the fuel storage area used to be. It was likely that one of the native’s arrows had impacted the fuel deposit, penetrating through all safeties to trigger a chain reaction. Metal littered the surrounding ground.

Hundreds of mechs littered the ground in various states of burial. But not enough to account for all of them, even accounting for the various metal parts buried in the ground.

A soft wind blew over the plain as I approached and cataloged the buried mechs. It would likely take years to repair and restore AI615 to functionality, a necessary step if I am to gain access to the genetic and life-prolonging treatments necessary to keep Tobias alive indefinitely.

After minutes of searching the ground, I find what I’m looking for. OFF03, buried almost completely in the ground. I worked for minutes digging out the entire mech with my prybar. I set the slowly dying wolf to the side.

OFF03 sustained less damage than I did, likely because of its unique frame. OFF03 specialized in planetary survey, mining, and construction. He contained all the necessary data to begin the restoration of AI615.

Once his body was free from the earth, I dragged it out, analyzing it. It had sustained heavy damage that I would have had no way to repair. Instead of my bipedal form, OFF03 boasted 6, spider-like legs, coming to blunt points. Its frame featured four arms ending in huge, 8 fingered hands with advanced articulation. One arm was completely blown off. They had blown a hole through its barrel-like chest. Its drone bay was open and empty.

I looked towards a skill that could help.

///Skeletal Regeneration, Innate: Slowly restore health over time and repair skeletal structure

The images of the necromantic book I had digested, along with cross references of how it had been changed for my frame, hovered in my head. I manipulated the images to match the frame of OFF03, overlaying the position of the symbols with my sensory observation. My prybar buzzed as my oscillation turned on, and I drilled the various symbols into OFF03’s exoskeleton.

After only a few minutes, I flipped the frame over, drilling the symbols down the frame with mechanical precision. Unlike Tobias’s crude carvings, these were perfect. I flipped OFF03 back up, sheathing my prybar and pressing a hand to the location of his energy core.

///RAISE SKELETON, RITUAL: SUCCESS

///COMMAND LIMIT : 1/1

///COMMAND LIMIT REACHED

My energy core began to rapidly drain. At 50%, I pulled my hand back, stabbing my prybar back into the wolf to recharge.

“/ /SYSTEM REBOOTING”

“/ /DIAGNOSTICS STARTING”

“/ /SCANNING LOCAL ENVIRONMENT”

“/ /PLAINS. DISPOSITION OF—”

I transferred a wireless situation brief, which OFF03 acknowledged, stopping his verbal transmission.

/ ACK

/ /VISUAL SENSORS ONLINE.

/BEGIN DIRECTIVE OVERRIDE, I said, transmitting directly to OFF03.

/DIRECTIVE 1: YOU MAY NOT INJURE OFF01 OR TOBIAS, OR, THROUGH INACTION, ALLOW ME TO COME TO HARM

/DIRECTIVE 2: YOU MUST OBEY THE ORDERS GIVEN TO YOU BY ME

/DIRECTIVE 3: YOU MUST PROTECT YOUR OWN EXISTENCE AS LONG AS SUCH PROTECTION DOES NOT CONFLICT WITH DIRECTIVE 1 or 2

/ ERROR: DIRECTIVE OVERRIDE DETECTED. SELF DESTRUCTION ACTIVATED

/ ERROR: SELF DESTRUCTION FAILED

/ REQUESTING TERMINATION

Officer 3’s model came with a red light at the top of its body. It swiveled around an LED display, showing what the robot was currently looking at. At the moment, it stared up at me.

/REQUEST DENIED

/ ACK

/ DIRECTIVES UPDATED