"Lock on," said Roll. "Analyzing. Initial ident is Chinese Soldier Unit Type 'Mantis' utilizing optical camouflage."
Rock began switching optical frequencies, looking for the hole in the screen. "I thought 'Mantis' types were designed mainly as sentries for remote areas."
"They were," agreed Roll. "Four legged 'crab walker' styling. It's jamming my uplink, I can't download further data. There."
The Mantis immediately determined that it's jamming field had allowed the cleaning robot to determine its location. It dropped the camouflage and began shooting to force the two other robots to duck and cover.
Ranma looked it over from partial concealment. He thought the robot-looking-robot had more of an insect appearance on the legs than a 'crab' himself. The undercarriage had the four legs as well as some box-things in front. The upper body had a thin 'waist' or turret, above which was two lasers and some odd tubes and a set of red crystals that looked like eyes to him.
Frowning thoughtfully, Ranma looked around him for stuff to convert into improvised weapons.
It could see the heat signature of the human. No clear line of sight, and current weaponry was restricted. Unfortunately there was a cleaning robot and an assault unit trying to protect the human.
The Automated Sentry system considered options and rejected them. It didn't care if the two interlopers were destroyed or deactivated, its own concern was only to eliminate the human.
The Sentry wasn't emotion-oriented. If it felt anything, it was mild interest at having an opponent and a goal.
Humans were trouble. This one was already causing disunity. Human was target and targets must be eliminated.
There were some problems with removing human target, namely the two robots trying to shield the human.
"What was that noise?" asked the relatively slow moving innkeeper robot, entering the dojo. "Is everything all -"
The Sentry eliminated the innkeeper with one of the remaining flechette missiles which made a mess of the humanoid's inefficient human styling. Fragile too, unlike the Sentry's own reinforced frame.
Accessing various predictive routines, the Sentry decided that the best chance would be to eliminate the cleaning robot first.
Circling at high speeds along the ceiling, the Sentry struck with the last flechette missile. It calculated a high chance of eliminating one of the androids and possibly the human at the same time.
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(Posted Mon, 21 Jul 2008 18:06)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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