Proud Mary: Rolling, Rolling
Posted on 09 Jul 2023 @ 12:52am by Command Master Chief Tāne HaiRoa
Edited on on 06 Feb 2024 @ 10:21pm
Mission:
M3 - Into the Deep
Location: OC - Holo Deck #14
Timeline: M3 D13 11:30 Hrs
4554 words - 9.1 OF Standard Post Measure
The extra-large doors slid open as HaiRoa entered, Number Fourteen was the largest holo deck on the station, it was designed as a training facility for large numbers of personnel. It was eighty meters long, fifty wide and twenty tall. Most often used for Security and Marines to practice combat drills, in which multiple teams could all be involved in the same scenario. It also had several damage control programs for all personnel, to simulate emergency repair events for Damage Control Teams. Unlike most holo decks this one had an attached Control Room, from which the scenarios could be controlled and adapted in response to the actions of the personnel undergoing training. Right now, the compartment was in standby, showing the bare deck and bulkheads crisscrossed with yellow grid lines and holoprojectors. The window to the control room was off to the right.
The robot was a little way in from the doors, standing beside a tool cart. It was in a sort of semi-crouched position, the legs spread wide, knees bent, its arms level on each side. Almost in a Haka stance HaiRoa mused to himself.
Lieutenant Sopwith and her two assistants were busy tinkering with it. O’Halloran was up on the front of it, standing on a knee-joint and elbows-deep under the big heavy piked-nosed chest plate. Sopwith had her head and shoulders in under its left arm. Ensign Vax was peering at an Engineering Tricorder.
“That power lead connection’s tight now.” O’Halloran withdrew his hands and a wrench, ”Changed out the coupler”
“But this relay board is still being a little…stubborn!” Sopwith’s muffled voice replied, “Get in there!”
There was a rattle followed by a loud Click! “Ok that’s in!” Sopwith pulled her head out, “Try it now.”
“Re-routing power to primary system…” Vax tapped in some commands and watched the Tricorder’s display “Yep that voltage drop is gone now, you got it.”
O’Halloran nodded and lowered the armored thorax-plate back into place, bolting it closed. Then clambered down, tossing his wrench back into a tool box on the cart.
“Command Master Chief” he straightened up seeing HaiRoa approaching. “Good morning”
“Chief, Ensign” HaiRoa nodded to him and Vax and addressed Sopwith “Lieutenant, ready to go?”
“Yes, we are Command Master Chief” She was grinning widely and HaiRoa could see she was excited for the test.
“Alright talk me through it, what have you got planned?” HaiRoa asked
“Target practice first, from stationary, with static and active targets” Sopwith explained “Then agility, followed by firing while maneuvering through scenarios; then direct combat with single and multiple aggressors.”
“Very well” HaiRoa nodded “I’d like to see the kill-switch procedures as well.” He trusted Sopwith and her team but was still concerned about the robot, it was after all a rebuilt machine that had previously been used to assault this very station. The last thing they would need, during an actual Pyrryx attack, would be for this thing to run amok.
“We can demonstrate that any time Command Master Chief” Vax replied “Just call it out during any phase of the demonstration and I’ll go through all the various shut-down options we built in.”
“Good, carry on” HaiRoa stepped back out of their way to observe.
“Go to full power up” Sopwith called to Vax, who tapped into his Tricorder.
There was a distinct electrical hum, a deep bass sort of pitch you could almost feel through the air and the line of three sensors on the robot’s head glowed blue, then, with a whine of hydraulics and servo motors, the robot stood up. The knees straightened, thighs extending upwards, thorax and chest lifted, the shoulders flexed, elbows and arms swung outward, and the head lifted, turning to left and right. At full height it was almost three meters tall, it would only just fit in most of the corridors without scrapping the ceiling.
“Good, run a full systems check” Sopwith instructed, walking around the robot looking it over.
“All in the green” Vax reported.
“Run the Start-up Check Sequence” she ordered.
The humming noise got louder, the robot began to move, the head swiveled left and right, up and down; then the shoulders flexed.
Servos whined and the massive right arm began a series of movements. The big grasping appendage, the robot’s eight-fingered hand, opened and closed, the long grasping fingers and knuckles worked one by one, then together. The hand simulating opening and grasping an object, then rotating left and right. Once the hand was tested, the entire arm moved, swinging forward and back, stretching out to the side, then upwards over head and down by the robot’s feet, before returning to its position at the robot’s side.
Next the left arm moved, this was all new, built to Sopwith’s teams design, even more robust that the right. It had three, two-meter-long talons, tipped with the hardest duralloy points the shipyard could manufacture. The talons swung open, first independently, then all three together. The talons closed, then came to a point, the arm moving forwards and back in a stabbing motion. The plan, and hope, was that they would have enough power to puncture or rend one of the Pyrryx armored suits.
Once both arms had completed their range of motions, the body moved. The massive armored shoulder yoke shrugged twisted from side to side. The chest and main body leaned forward and back, the rotated to the left and right sides. Then it was time for the robot to move. The hip servos whined and the machine lifted its right leg, walked a step forward, followed by the left leg. The giant slab-like feet lifted up from the deck and slid forward, coming down with a solid thud they could all feel through the deck. The robot took three steps forward, then stopped, squatted, then lowering first to its right knee, then its left.
It stood up and walked backwards six steps, then stopped. It turned ninety degrees to its right, bending its knees to crouch, then stood up and turned another ninety degrees. This time it did a kind of lunge-movement, first the left leg forward then the right. Straightening back up, it did a full one-eighty about face, returning to its starting position almost exactly. There was a protest of metal as the big feet scraped on the deck.
Once back in position, the robot bent into a fighting stance, legs planted wide, hips back, chest leaning forward, keeping its center of balance perfectly aligned, shoulders hunched, arms slightly raised, elbows locked, the right eight-fingered hand clenched in a fist; the left triple-talons in a spear-point.
Then it did something complete unexpected, it gave a loud booming growl!
The sound was somewhere between an almost natural animal cry and a synthetic sort of static reverberating snarl. It was felt as much as heard and made HaiRoa’s hair stand on end.
Then it went still, thrumming quietly to itself with that deep bass hum, blue sensors glowing, waning and glowing again. HaiRoa almost expected to hear it breathing, it seemed almost alive.
Sopwith, Vax and O’Halloarn looked to HaiRoa expectantly. Damn but it looked impressive, and that growl was downright scary He thought to himself.
“The growl was the Lieutenant’s idea” O’Halloran smiled “She got Master Chief Ketar, the Dockyard Welding crew chief, to make some snarling noises and ran them through a voice synthesizer”
Sopwith gave a sort of bashful shrug. “Chief Ketar’s Klingon, big and scary, I like her” she grinned.
HaiRoa hid a small smile and nodded “Good so far, what else have you got?”
“Engage combat training mode, phasers to simulated fire and enable voice command” Sopwith instructed Vax. The Engineer tapped his Tricorder and gave her a nod.
“Papa-Mike, activate phasers” Sopwith instructed the robot. The bank of six phaser emitters on the robot’s chest glowed red.
“Papa-Mike” Sopwith said to the robot “Stand-by to engage single targets of opportunity!”
The robot gave HaiRoa another surprise, it replied Acknowledged
The voice was deep and definitely computerized, with an almost mechanical diction.
O’Halloran pushed the tool cart out of the way and Sopwith tapped her commbadge =^= Training Control initiate program Papa-Mike Range Drill Zero One =^=
At the far end of the large holodeck a series of targets appeared, life-sized Pyrryx-warrior shaped.
The robot swung it’s chest towards the closest target, a phaser beam shot out. It impacted the target Pyrryx’s left leg at the knee joint. A second beam a split-second later hit the target’s right elbow, a third beam impacted just under the target’s helmet, right at the neck seal.
The target collapsed and the robot swung its chest left to engage the next one. In rapid succession it went through four targets, crippling each in turn with several shots.
“Papa-Mike” Sopwith said to the robot “Stand-by to engage multiple targets of opportunity!”
Acknowledged the robot replied again.
The targets reset, double the number appeared and this time the robot fired at two of them simultaneously, taking them out in pairs. They ran through that drill twice, so far it had not missed, the beams were striking the targets at the perceived weak points of the armor.
Sopwith changed up the simulation =^= Training Control, initiate Papa-Mike Agility Drill Beta Three =^=
A series of projections appeared in the deck, steep and shallow ramps; walls of several different heights, between one and three or more meters high; tunnels, a series of doorways of which several were low, a couple of holo-trenches opened up in the floor, some narrow and deep, others shallow but wider. The holo-obstacles spread out in a loop around the compartment.
“Papa-Mike” Sopwith instructed the robot “Engage travel mode, complete the circuit, negotiate all obstacles. Standard speed”
Acknowledged came the responding rumble.
The robot did a smart right turn and walked forward, the big feet clunking it towards the first obstacle, a shallow ramp that rose up some two and half meters, leveled out and then ended in a straight drop back to the deck.
The servos whined louder as the robot advanced up the ramp, crossed the level part and then simply stepped right off the drop, landing with a heavy thud on both feet that HiaRoa could feel through the deck plating.
Then it set off towards the next test, a low wall, it approached the wall, lifted its right leg higher than normal and stepped over it, continuing on to another wall, some two meters high. This one it reached out, opened its right hand, grasped the top of the wall and pulled its right side up. The left leg raised and extended, getting its foot up on the wall, then it clambered up and over, down to the other side. It was not particularly elegant, but it successfully cleared the wall.
Straightening up the robot advanced on the next wall, this one was perhaps three and a half meters tall, higher that the robot. It moved up to the wall, reached up with its right hand, getting four of its fingers on the top. The talons on the left hand opened up and it got two of those wedged on the top, then it bent its knees and with a grind of servos it literally jumped upwards, It pulled with its arms and it clambered onto the top of the wall. Putting it’s chest to the wall it swung its hips and legs over and dropped down the other wide, thudding its feet heavily onto the deck. Again, it was a little cumbersome, certainly not pretty to watch, but it was over the wall and moving on.
The robot advanced on a narrow trench, it extended its stride and just walked right over it. The next one was too wide to step across, so it moved to the edge, crouched, kicked off and jumped forward, clearing the gap with half a meter to spare. The last trench was much wider, too far to jump, so it clambered down into the hole, crossed it and them clambered out the other side, pulling itself up onto the deck and regaining its feet.
The robot progressed around the course, ducking under low doorways, at one point doing a sort of strange shuffling crouch through a low tunnel and then turning sideways to move through a narrow gap.
The final obstacle was a steep upwards ramp, a level top and a steep ramp descent. To climb it the robot lent forward, using its hand and talons to assist it upwards. Then to descend it moved to the edge of the down-ramp, moved one foot over, the right. Placing that foot forward, it bent its right knee, allowed the foot to begin to slide down the ramp, brought the left foot up to and over the edge, then slid down the ramp in a kind of mechanical version of the landing position used by skiers going over snow jumps. One foot forward, the other back, knees flexed to maintain balance. Once down on the deck, it walked steadily back to the start.
“Papa-Mike repeat course at Combat Speed” Sopwith instructed it. She turned to HaiRoa with a grin “Watch this”
The robot acknowledged and set off, moving much quicker than before. It was not really a run or even a jog, more a sort of fast forward lumbering, but the machine moved quickly enough. The leg servos and hydraulics whined and hissed as it made its way back around the course, the deck reverberating to the pounding of the massive feet as it powered its way along.
HaiRoa watched the robot, it was moving faster than he expected, not faster than a Humanoid, or the Pyrryx in the video, but still at an impressive pace for such a large machine. When it reached the deep wide trench and was starting up the far side he called out to Vax. “Kill it!”
Vax tapped his commbadge =^= Papa-Mike Stop! Stop! Stop! =^=
Instantly the robot stopped what it had been doing. It had been in the process of climbing up the trench wall, the right hand remained in place on the edge of the trench, but the body lowered down back on to its feet and the left hand went to its side, once it was level then it powered off and stood there motionless.
“We put in a safety feature on the kill function” O’Halloran explained, “When it’s activated Mary will ensure she is in a safe, stable, position before completely powering down.”
“We didn’t want her to just stop and possibly topple over,” Sopwith added “Either damaging herself or, more importantly, injuring any personal nearby.”
HaiRoa nodded, it was a good idea, if they had to shut it off quickly, it was better if it did not fall over and kill somebody. “Smart, I like it. Alright, continue”
Reactivated, the robot clambered out of the trench, completed the course and lumbered back to them. Sopwith and the others gave it a quick check over, everything was in order.
“Now for the good stuff” Sopwith said =^= Training Control initiate Papa-Mike Range Drill Zero Two =^=
The holo-obstacle course faded away, it was replaced by several difference scenes, a length of station corridor, partially blocked by girders and plating, what looked like battle damage or an explosion; an area of a hanger with a parked shuttle craft; and a part of the promenade, a wide corridor, with a double-wide storefront.
The sign above it read Messer's Bernard, Fulcrum & Gilroy & Co. Purveyors of Fine Gentlemen’s Apparel & Bespoke Tailors, By Appointment In front of it, on the promenade, was a food cart, Urak th’Zulas Andorian Sandwich Express said a sign on the cart.
“Papa-Mike” Sopwith said to the robot “Engage multiple targets of opportunity, clear all scenarios”
Acknowledged the robot replied and moved to the head of the corridor. At the far end two holo-Pyrryx appeared, this time the black-suited warriors moved, they advanced down the corridor. The robot moved up to the wreckage across the corridor and began to engage the Pyrryx with its phasers, shooting at both targets. Once under fire the warriors moved quickly, with deadly speed, ducking in and out of doorways as they closed with the robot. It kept up a steady battery of fire, still aiming for the predicted weak points in the armored suits. There were some misses this time, but as the Pyrryx got closer the accuracy went up and both were taken down before they could reach the robot’s position.
The robot moved out to the shuttle hanger. As it entered the scene, a door at the end of the hanger opened and two Pyrxxy entered, the robot took position near the shuttle and began to engage the Pyrryx. As before there were some misses as the simulated Warriors dodged and darted, but the robot took one down with several shots to the legs. The second one closed-up on the shuttle using it for cover, at which point the robot punched out the cockpit windows with its left-hand talons and shot the Pyrryx several times in the helmet visor at close range through the rent canopy. The shuttle was wrecked but both aggressors were down. HaiRoa considered that preferable to them running loose.
The robot moved on to the promenade scene, it took up a position by the food cart. This time there were three Pyrryx warriors, moving forward rapidly. The robot engaged one, this time firing all six phasers in rotation, aiming low, the rapid succession of shots tore up the deck and hit both of the warrior’s armored knees, it collapsed in a heap. The other two kept coming, the robot tracked the closest, turning its chest to follow it, then a little more to give it some lead. As the Warrior passed the left-hand store window the robot fired all six phasers in a single volley. The beams slammed into the Pyrryx, knocking it off balance and hurling it through the store window.
The warrior collided with the display, a tailors dummy with its suit jacket went flying, a wooden trouser press was smashed to splinters, the pants and shirt draped over it caught fire. The Pyrryx stumbled to its feet, the robot fired a second six-round salvo and the warrior fell backwards crushing a wooden chair and a wine table.
The third Pyrryx rushed at the robot, which kicked out with its left foot, slamming the food cart towards the warrior and letting loose at it with a rotational barrage. Several shots hit the cart which exploded, showering the area with some kind of meat and sauce subs. The Pyrryx hurled the cart aside, at which point the robot shot it in the helmet with another six-shot volley and the warrior dropped. The robot took two steps forward and shot it again, beams hitting the neck, elbows and knees. The Pyrryx stayed down.
=^= Training Control, end scenario =^= Sopwith instructed, she and the others came over to HaiRoa as the three scenes faded away.
“How much of that did you preprogram into the robot?” He asked ”Were these rehearsed scenes, that it would always win?”
“Not at all Command Master Chief” Sopwith replied, “We gave it enemy recognition data for the Pyrryx based on the information we were given, then extrapolated their combat abilities and tactics, which basically seem to be a standard brutal frontal assault. We gave Mary targeting priorities on likely weak spots in the armor and the ability to select between single, multiple, rotational and volley fire depending on the perceived threat and likelihood of her causing critical hits in each fire mode.
As for the scenarios, we ran some with the Deck Training Control team using just the robot’s combat programming code, this was the first actual physical test and we certainly did not pre-program in a win” Sopwith seemed a little upset he might be doubting her integrity.
“I believe you Lieutenant,” He replied “Just wanted to be sure. I’m impressed so far, what’s next?”
Sopwith brightened up. “Now we go hands-on! And this is the same, nothing preprogrammed. We gave Mary a range of physical combat abilities, based on her design, weaponry, appendages, maneuverability and so forth. Some of that was in the code the robot was given when it was converted from mining to combat, we adapted that to her new design and specs”
“And the holo Training Control Team helped us out with that too” Vax added “They gave us the programming data from some of their holo combatants. We’ve got a range of techniques, Marine hand-to-hand, Human Karate, Jujutsu, Vulcan martial arts, Klingon edged weapon skills; Andorian Imperial Guard stuff. We took elements of all that code, adapted it to the robot’s capabilities, then programmed it to fight and defend itself.”
HaiRoa nodded “Okay show me”
Sopwith tapped her commbadge =^= Training Control initiate Papa-Mike Dojo Zero One=^=
The three previous scenes faded away, to be replaced by a single station corridor.
“Papa-Mike” She said to the robot “Defend the corridor, phasers are for secondary defense.”
The robot gave the usual Acknowledged and walked to the head of the holo corridor, once there, it settled into its ready-stance.
A moment later a Pyrryx appeared and advanced rapidly up the corridor towards it. The robot waited until it got close then punched forward with its left appendage, the three talons closed together forming a spear point. The point slammed into the Warriors chest but did not penetrate the suit. The impact pushed the Pyrryx off the side, the duralloy talon tips gouging a jagged line across its chest, but the gouge sealed itself up almost instantly. The Pyrryx careened into the corridor wall, leaving a huge dent, then recovered and lunged forward trying to grapple with the robot.
The robot’s left arm came up, jamming its long thick talons under the chin of Pyrryx’s helmet, holding it against the bulkhead, while the right hand reached out and all eight fingers clamped around the Warriors left arm. But the suit’s strange reactive material made it slippery and difficult to grasp. The robot’s servos whined as they increased the pressure. The robot’s fingers worked on the elbow trying to tear at the joint. The Pyrryx fought back, with its right hand it punched and clawed at the Robot’s head and left side, sparks flew from the impacts between the armored suit and robot’s armored plates but even with its power the Pyrryx seemed unable to damage the robot.
The pair grappled, exchanging strikes and blows, the robot’s persistent clawing at the warriors left arm seemed to be having an effect and the Pyrryx’s struggle intensified. It changed tactics and tried working its right hand into the robot’s own arm joint. The robot responded in kind and fought back harder, it began to slam it’s right knee up into the Pyrryx. The big joints crunching into the suit as it battered at it.
The noise was horrendous, the clanging thud of duralloy plates against armored suit, the scream of servos and hydraulics at maximum pressure, the pair seemed evenly matched but then the warrior’s left elbow joint gave way. The robot tore the lower limb away, since they did not have an clue what the Pyrryx were like under those suits, the holo program just depicted a shapeless gray mass. The warrior became frantic now hammering away at the robot, trying to tear at it, but, with one arm disabled, it was losing the fight. The robot continued to pin it against the bulkhead with its three long talons and began to work at the neck joint under the helmet, alternatively punching and clawing at it. A few seconds later the helmet came off and the Pyrryx collapsed.
The robot stepped back, turned slowly to scan the corridor for any other aggressors, seeing none it adopted its ready stance and went still. The only sound the hum of its power circuits and a soft grinding noise from its left arm.
=^=Control end the scenario=^= Sopwith called out and as the corridor faded away they moved over to the robot. O’Halloran went straight to the left arm join and began checking it over. “That Pyrryx managed to break one of the servo motor mounts” he announced peering into the arm joint and scratching his head. “Can’t really put a plate over there as it would limit the joint’s movement, but maybe we can reinforce the motor mounts?”
“Start working on some new mounts,” Sopwith agreed “Better do the same for the knee joints too, if they can get at the elbows, they can do the same to the knees”
O’Halloran pulled a PaDD from his coverall and began making notes.
Sopwith turned to HaiRoa. “Command Master Chief?”
“Impressive…” HaiRoa nodded, and indeed it was, in a few days they had turned what was essentially a pile of beat-up disassembled, mining robot junk into a capable fighting machine. It was a pity they only had one of them and he was not even sure how much good this one would be, but if those things got lose on the station, then they would need every weapons system they had just to survive.
Even so it had still been only a simulation, who knew how it would go down against a real Pyrryx, even so he needed to check the integrity of the simulation.
“Just so we are clear Lieutenant” he asked Sopwith “Like the phaser round, you are assuring me that this was not a preprogrammed, rehearsed win?”
“No Command Master Chief” She stood up straightly and looked him right back in the eye “A totally honest test, we extrapolated the Pyrryx’s capabilities and programmed the robot to try to overcome them, but we did not rig the scenarios in any way” Vax and O’Halloran moved in behind her, nodding their own assent to her declaration.
“I believe you, but we need to be sure as we can be, before we have to find out for real.“ HaiRoa said “I want you to run the scenarios again and again until something breaks, then fix it and run them again. You’ve found a possible weakness in the servo mounts; you may find more. Test this thing as much as you can, fix what breaks until its ready for the real thing.”
He looked at the three of them, they had been putting in long hours, were clearly tired and rightfully so. But there was a new gleam in their eyes now, their robot had taken on, and had beaten, a frightening enemy in all of the tests.
“You’ve worked hard on this, and it’s paid off, now find a bit more effort, to be really sure.” He gave them a supportive nod “Keep me informed please Lieutenant”
“Aye Aye, Command Master Chief”
