Ranma glanced at Rock, frowned and nodded. "Combine!"
The Sentry didn't want to cooperate with this, and began spraying shots at the area.
When Ranma appeared again, he was wearing blue armor.
Let's do this!
"Okay, what's the deal?" asked one of the large Harvester ships as it approached Earth-orbit. This massive ship grabbed Helium-3 from the Outer planets and brought it in-system to be used to power the massive fusion reactors that supplied a large amount of the power used by the robot civilization. Since it WAS an important job, they carried a lot of weight in a symbolic as well as a purely physical sense.
"Deal?" asked Master Brain 985, a city-complex AI that oversaw BosWash.
"Your role and actions are completely understandable and logical," said Harvester Five. "As the BosWash Admin, your primary task is keeping everything running. To anticipate problems, plan fixes, and work out the long and short range goals and consequences."
"Well, yes," said Master Brain 985.
"No," continued Harvester Five, "I specifically meant 'Dark.'"
"It's a perfectly acceptable name-designate," protested Dark.
"Uh huh," said a clearly skeptical Harvester Five.
"Okay, okay," grumped Dark. "Prepare for transmission. File is a systematic cross-comparison on story genre 'martial arts' and 'adventure.'"
"Ah," said Harvester Five as it looked over the data. "This makes more sense now."
"I don't get it," said Supermodel Emulator 20517 who was bored and tuning in.
"The growth and strengthening of an individual, the protaganist or main character," explained Dark as if to an idiot with an IQ merely in the low human range. Which pretty much fit the Supermodel Emulator series anyway. "This is accomplished by having an enemy, a rival, and the occasional quest. Sometimes an Epic Quest as well."
"Pattern exists across several genres of human story," agreed Harvester Five, now close enough that it could access data webs in real time without hours of lightspeed delay.
"Exactly," said Dark, "I have chosen to take an antagonist role - but the 'honorable enemy' subtype. That way I can be menacing while occasionally being helpful. All the while, the conflict will allow for the human child to grow stronger."
"That doesn't explain the 'Grand Calzoni,'" pointed out Harvester Five. "Master Brain 204 is not responding to inquiries either."
"Master Brain 204 manages the solar collectors and energy stations in the Sahara," said Dark. "We've come to the conclusion that damage has settled in and not all of her processors are up to speed. Hence this odd combination of Western and Middle Eastern fantasy genres, and deciding on the name and tactics."
"I've accessed the files and do not believe that dressing a young boy up as a 'Princess' and insisting he be treated as a she will do anyone any good," said Harvester Five. "Though processor damage would explain WHY the 'Grand Calzoni' is attempting to gather data on an 'ocarina of time' and treating such as a real object."
"Uhm, there's been a change," said Master Brain 272 (LosDiego complex) and the one who'd been working on the signal watch and subcutaneous transporter.
"What kind of change?" asked Harvester Five.
"First off, Ranma has summoned Rock & Roll. Roll's telemetry show significant damage shortly after summoning," said MB-272. "He has now used the Combination System with Rock."
If they were not computer intelligences, the speed of their connections and bringing up of resources would have been considered frantic.
"Secondary... he arrived at bio-age five. He's only now about to reach age six," said MB-272, "yet there exists a considerable waiting list for 'one-on-one' time scheduled for his adolescence."
"Unimportant," dismissed Harvester Five. "What is going on that requires the Combine System activation?"
He moved her to where she couldn't be shot at anymore.
When he did, he saw the twitching of one arm, the hand trying to reach out towards him. He saw the tear gathering in her still functional eye.
Ranma was almost six years old now, but he had just discovered that he could get really really pissed off.
"NOW, Rock," said Ranma, turning and beginning a set of leaps to bring him to a different angle-of-attack.
Roger that.
Error
Warning. Critical systems damage.
Beginning shutdown of extraneous systems.
Roll felt terribly alone and an ache in her emulated heart. While constructed in the semblence of humanity, and enjoying the human interaction, she knew she wasn't human.
Ranma had seen. There was no way she would ever be accepted as a playmate and companion by him now. With her synthetic parts laid bare, and her inhuman nature revealed - the closeness and friendship she'd come to treasure would now be lost.
Things like this had happened before of course. It was a rare human who could actually overcome their reactions. Some were traumatized thereafter, unable to see past the cultural conditioning.
As things went dark for Roll, unnecessary functions being shut down to better preserve the core systems, she freely wept for the loss of Ranma's innocence.
"MEGABLASTER!" called out Ranma, leaping up and pointing the gun appendage at the Sentry. Gathered energy shot out, incinerating the metal pellets being directed towards its point of origin.
The Sentry had no time to move, even as fast as it could be, before the blast hit the outer casing and burned its way through.
Ranma kicked the fallen machine several times for good measure. He didn't entirely trust that it wasn't faking it.
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(Posted Sun, 28 Dec 2008 17:45)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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