The Last Fabber: A Story of Survival (Chapter 2 is here!)

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter 1
Chapter 2

Chapter 1
​

ERROR 07 COPROCESSOR NOT AVAILABLE
ERROR 02 NONMASKABLE INTERRUPT
FATAL ERROR, BEGINNING MEMORY DUMP
...
MEMORY DUMP COMPLETE
SYSTEM WILL REBOOT
…
…
…
…
WELCOME TO PROGEN_OS 9.1 BUILD#576368678
BEGINNING GENERAL SYSTEMS CHECK
...
PRIMARY MEMORY: OFFLINE
...
AUXILIARY MEMORY: ONLINE
…
NANOLATHE: ONLINE
…
REACTOR: ONLINE
…
SERVOS: ONLINE
…
SENSORS: ONLINE
...
GENERAL SYSTEMS CHECK COMPLETE

------
​

The fabrication bot was not sentient as such. It had no self-awareness as humans would understand it. Yet it possessed a highly complex neural net that could work from existing pre-programmed algorithms and improvise new ones.

Today would be a time to improvise.

The bot’s visual sensors came online just in time to watch an enormous mushroom cloud dissipating on the horizon to the south. Attempting to make sense of this, the bot tried to access its last saved state stored in primary memory. Where primary memory usually was, there was only blankness, as though it had never been there. Perplexed, the fabrication bot tried to load a saved state from auxiliary memory, which was housed in a depleted uranium casing at the center of its torso.

Suddenly it all began to come back. Some of it, at least. There had been an attack by the Synchronous out of the blue. Their tanks came in from the south, right into the Foundation’s main defensive line. It had been repelled easily, too easily. The attack proved to be a ruse. Foundation radars that had been busy watching the tanks picked up the wing of Vanguards too late. Commander Kapowaz began taking heavy damage…

After that the bot had no memory. Based on what it knew, however, things had likely gone poorly for the Commander. But if that were true…

It wasn’t possible. All the major factions used something called a “dead man’s switch” (whatever that was) that would self-destruct all local units and structures under a Commander’s control if they were destroyed, in order to protect their technology from being reverse-engineered.

So how was the bot still there?

The fabrication bot had no answers. Yet the fact remained: he had survived, and was likely the last Foundation unit active on a planet swarming with the Synchronous. Now a decision had to be made. Should he initiate self-destruct manually? Yes, that would be the logical course of action. He should not be active any longer; every moment he remained in one piece brought more risk to the Foundation’s security.

Without remorse (for he had no emotions), the bot activated it’s self-destruct subroutine and waited for the reactor to melt down.

Milliseconds passed. The explosion never came.

The bot’s self-diagnostic subroutine examined the reactor and scratched its proverbial head. It seemed that self-destruction was no longer an option. Though the bot’s structural integrity was still at a respectable 73%, the reactor seemed to have stopped responding to commands. Apparently there was damage to low-level internal systems that the self-repair mechanisms could not repair.

There was only one other option. He was a fabrication bot, and he would serve the Foundation the only way he knew how. He would fabricate.

The bot took another look at auxiliary memory. Unfortunately, the blueprint database had experienced the same corruption the rest of auxiliary memory had suffered. But then…

If the bot had been human it would have grinned. There was still one blueprint left intact…


END OF CHAPTER ONE

MOAR!! This is really good, and I like the perspective you're taking on PA's lore.

Me like alot, keep going

That cliff hanger is really good, I'm genuinely excited for the next chapter.

Looking forward to the next one!

DO MOAR

This is awesome please continue

Ye Gods, I bestow upon thine mortal thy greatest Power: Building stuff!

Hows is that little fabber going to finance his building?
The Commander acts as initial Eco and Storage source. So at least some Eco would have needed to survive intact with fabby there.

Also, what are the chances the enemy will just asume the planet is his since the last commander died?

Will you be posting chapter 2 in this thread as well, or where should we look for it? Great text, I didn't expect to want to read more.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter 1
Chapter 2

Chapter 2​

The green spray of nanobots adhered to the tall structure and began to congeal into gleaming neurosteel. After a few more seconds, the outline of a radar tower began to take shape.


The lone fabrication bot shut off his nanolathe and spent a few milliseconds perusing the radar tower with its visual sensors. It lay dormant, casting two long shadows as the twin suns began to set. The bot had reclaimed some bits of nearby shrapnel, probably from a laser tower’s armor, to complete the structure. Yet his own reactor was barely adequate to power his own systems, let alone fill the power requirements of the radar tower.


Where was he going to get the energy to power the thing without blueprints for a generator? The bot spent whole seconds searching for options. Slowly, the half-baked outline of a plan began to emerge.


The bot set off at the best pace it could manage, traveling southward through the wreckage that had once been the Foundation’s main base on this planet. Thankfully the bot lacked olfactory sensors, for any human would have choked on the sulfurous, smoky air. The silhouettes of factories and launch facilities loomed overhead, some still ablaze.


After long hours of travel at the bot’s slow, plodding pace, he reached his goal. A blasted waste of hardened slag and glassy earth lay before him. At the center of this field, something large and metallic glowed red with heat. Commander Kapowaz lay spread-eagle in her death pose, as though welcoming an end to a day of failure.


The bot did not stop to consider this, though. Instead he approached the commander and began to cut into her chest with his nanolathe.


Commanders were designed to remain functional right up until the bitter end. Thus they were equipped with multiple redundant systems for power, construction, locomotion, and self repair. It was the first that the bot was after. The primary reactor had been the cause of the explosion that was Kapowaz’s demise, but it was just possible, though unlikely, that the hardened auxiliary reactor had survived the blast.


Where the bot half expected to find a block of slag, the auxiliary reactor’s berth was totally empty. After a lengthy search, the fabrication bot found the reactor half-embedded in the ground a hundred meters from ground zero. It appeared, to his surprise and delight, more or less intact. There was something else too, a small computing module fused the the side of the reactor. No matter, it was probably just the reactor’s control system.


The suns were rising again by the time the bot returned to the radar. The bot considered attaching the reactor directly to the radar tower, but then it could not be used for other purposes. The power output was more than sufficient to run a factory.


So, the bot instead welded the reactor assembly to its own back and made the necessary power and data connections with nanobots. Now it could beam power to other structures via microwave dispersion.


With a whir, the radar tower came online. The fabrication bot initiated a data uplink and began to inspect the radar’s output.


The yellow dots of Synchronous units were rapidly converging on the ruins of the Foundation base. Many of them would be fabricators, come to scavenge precious metal. But they would have a heavy combat escort as well, along with air support to search for any surviving enemies.


Such as himself.


How long could he hold out against the yellow tide? The bot ran several simulations of possible futures, few of them favorable. But as long as there was some chance of survival, the bot’s basic directives would urge it to continue its struggle. Indeed, there was new cause for hope. The mysterious computer module turned out to contain a backup of the commander’s own blueprint database. Again, a green spray filled the air as a vehicle factory began took form.


END OF CHAPTER 2

Please tell me if I should write more, or give some constructive feedback.

I don't generally go in for fan fiction (it can be *terrible*)... this is some of the first to get me interested I think it's the little details you've managed to weave in there, a few technical names and such and you've managed to make then 'believable' in terms of the lore rather than going way over the top. I like!

I'm totally digging it.

Though i'm a reader by nature, you put some very nice insight in that i'm very much enjoying.

Carry on good sir!

Even better than the first chapter! Write more please

It begins with a lowly fabber in the face of overwhelming forces, I can see this going somewhere. Keep going, @SolitaryCheese 's fan fiction is a little stale at the moment (only because nothing has been added for a while )

yess!! more please! this is almost as good as solitary cheese's stuff!

Thanks for posting this! You've done a good job on it so far and I like your take on the fabber.

This really is some of the best fan fiction I've read. I'd love to see more

Lovely!

This is now included in my little list with a pretty link leading here!

Soon™