Tech-01 appears, seated at his computer. He’s got a tired look about him, the beginnings of a beard growing, but still seems excited. “So, Sir, here we go. Mild breakthrough. Remember how I said there was volumes of data available in Nightlash’s memory banks? We managed to dig and found some worthwhile data.”
He taps a few keys on the keyboard and the EKG display from a few days ago reappears. “So, had one of our computer techs take a look at this. He agrees, something happened right around here,” he highlights a spot, where readings go from consistent to erratic spikes. “So we dug a bit. This break right here, this is where Ritter happened. So, we dug back further, where the process health was consistent, and found something we were not expecting.”
The image turns to a grainy video, dated well before 2010, showing Ritter approaching the camera; his demeanor calm and collected. “You know,” the former tech speaks, “any obligations that kept me from tearing you apart have been dealt with. Congratulations, your faction has made an enemy of ours. Not a very surprising thing, mind. We all felt it was inevitable.”
There’s a sudden burst of static.
“Feel that? Those are inhibitors. We’ve had those in our R&D department ever since your lot was discovered on Earth. You won’t be going anywhere at all. Not for a long while. Not until I am through with you. When I am, Cobra Commander himself will worship me and my new superweapon. So you just sit there, for now. By the time my team is done with you, you won’t even remember who you are.”
The image cuts off and Tech-01 is back on-screen, a thoughtful look on his face. “There’s more. A great deal more. We’re sifting through to find out what went on during this project, and afterwards as well. The spooks down at Intel are chomping at the bit to get into it.”
He reaches off-screen, bringing over his ‘I <3 Jet Noise’ mug and sipping from it. “Mmm. So, we’ve got a few more pieces of this puzzle, Sir. Ritter was after a weapon, and from what I can tell, he saw a chance to take it and did so. Nightlash was, in effect, a prisoner of war, but even our records don’t indicate us ever having her in custody. He pulled the wool over our eyes in more ways than one. Oh, she was a Night Raven prior to this, yes. But he changed the serial number on her tail and we discharged the old one as her having left. I’m guessing that was handled through trickery, perhaps using a standard Night Raven with altered tail numbers. Tough one to prove, and hardly worth the effort as it’s done and gone.”
Reaching up, Tech-01 bumps the camera to show Nightlash, still in alt-form, in the hangar behind him. “And she doesn’t even remember this. Not a bit of it. The Techno-Viper found strings of code that are acting as a partition in her own memory. Where that line in her, uh… for lack of a better word, cerebral activity went from normal to erratic happens on the EKG, her memory started over in a new partition. Granted, there are long-term memories stored that she has access to, but the portions handling what transpired prior to, and during, Ritter’s little project are stored away from her and are, at this moment, inaccessible by her.”
He hesitates a moment. “I have not let her know, fully, what we’ve found, either. I’ll leave that much up to you, but I would honestly recommend waiting until we’ve decrypted the entire sequence of events before doing so. Tech-4413 joked that she was probably the one who killed off the team working on her. It was a joke, but warrants consideration. I’ll need permission to access the more detailed records for Strato-Viper 719, Ritter, and Strausus to begin drawing up any conclusions in that regard. I’ll also make sure to include our two mystery Blueshirts, just to see if we can confirm their involvement.”
Tech-01 takes another sip from his mug. “So, five suspects involved, all of them dead, and what seems to be a Decepticon retained against its will after we, as a faction, had broken ties with them. Huh.” He shrugs. “But that’s not what you’re after, is it. Rather, the status of other aspects of this undertaking. So, here we go.”
He sets the mug aside, pulling up a list that superimposes itself on the left side of the screen. “We’ve removed the old Shchel-3UM HMD HUD system that came from some unknown SU-27, replaced it with a Scorpion HGU-68/P compatible system. Helmet-Mount-Display capable and also compatible with night-vision optics. Not sure if she’ll ever have a pilot, but we’re including those capabilities since removing them is not easily done. This will allow her to integrate with the helmet-mounted heads up displays our Strato-Vipers are accustomed to using.” The images of the standard display units scroll over the screen as he speaks. “It will allow direct control and interfacing from, and to, the drone, the infrared camera, and the cockpit and weapon systems for overall ease of use no matter who ends up flying the aircraft. Lose a pilot, and the copilot or even drone-pilot can pick up the slack.
“We’ve also managed to gain approval from M.A.R.S. for procurement, without carcass, of an MX-23r/A Electro-Optical Targeting System. This should bring about the desired effect you requested in regards to bringing her up to par with our own aircraft capabilities. The EOTS system is the same one we tested a few years back for our own aircraft to extend their capabilities. This should also allow her to carry the standard armament our own Night Ravens possess without any conflict. They’re promising a delivery time of ‘short’ for now. We’ll get a hard-date commitment from them within the next few days.”
He grins. “And this brings about another twist… We get our weapons from a rather exclusive source. I’ll leave it to you to figure out how best to handle that. She can’t create our missiles by sheer force of will without having the schematics to do so. We can either breed a dependency with this, or we can write it off as an acceptable risk and give her access to those so she can manufacture her own armament to replenish her weapon systems on her own, without seeking us for such things.”
Tech-01 reaches for his mug, sipping again. “Now then, as far as what we’ve gained out of this. The FRAS-4c rocket we pulled from her is, indeed, nuclear assisted. It’s nothing phenomenal, but it can pack a punch in the right environment. I would recommend testing it on our own submersibles for potential use in the field. The Special-Weapons team is already reverse-engineering it for M.A.R.S. to produce in bulk if we so desire. The AA-X-15 R-73M2 missile is another story. It’s not going to do us too much good. We’ve got better, I believe, especially since ours works with our weapon systems so well. But we’ve got it in the Reverse-Engineering department anyway to sell back to M.A.R.S. for their own use. It could buy us a good favor or two.”
He pulls up another image of a metal fragment. “We were also fortunate enough to be granted access to this. Nightlash says it’s a fairly standard piece of armor carried by most of the Cybertron automatons. Rolled beryllium plating. Very resilient, very dense. She lamented not having too much to spare, though, as her armor is mostly the same titanium we utilize on our own aircraft. Again, most likely for compatibility reasons with stealth systems.” He cycles through the images. “R&D is going to hold onto this as well. The structural engineers credit this as being one of the reasons her airframe can take the excessive speeds, even though she still insists she can’t.”
Settling back in his chair, Tech-01 rubs his eyes. “I will be quite honest, you gave us one of the most intriguing projects I’ve had the privilege of leading. Especially when we get to this.” An image pops up showing a myriad of lines intersecting over one another in complex form.
“The laser-core. We followed your prompts and took a look at it in-depth, with Nightlash’s permission of course. I should state that I highly doubt even our best astrophysicist could begin to explain what is taking place here without gaining divine knowledge of quantum mechanics on a scale we’ve not yet begun to imagine.”
He sighs. “Right, so, here’s what we’ve learned. Energon is how Nightlash gets power. Without that, she cannot perform basic functions. The processors are what read stimuli and cause reactions. This laser-core, though. This is the ‘why’ of it all. We’ve been watching some of the processors closely, specifically these here,” he pulls up a wire-diagram of Nightlash (alt-form) with several lines drawn through, each colored differently. “Orange is sensory, red we’ve tracked to auditory, blue is vocal, but this isolated one here,” he zooms in on a purple series of blocks linked together. “This is the neural network, in a sense. She referred to it as her Primary Processor. We’re calling it the ‘Brain Chip’. This one seems to take input from everything else, all of the other processors and networks, and feeds it into the laser core. There’s a return on data here,” he shows the networking path with flowing arrows, “where that data, once it has gone through the filter of the Core, returns to the ‘Brain Chip’ and rewrites the algorithms that then govern the rest.”
He rubs his eyes. “It hurts just following it all until you’ve figured out what is happening. But to break it down. Inputs are pulled into all of the processors, wherein algorithmic codework dictates a response. These are evolving, however, at a remarkable rate because all of those are likewise routed through the primary processor, which then feeds it into the laser-core, which then rewrites a response to suit the evolution of the sentience that this particular Cybertronian has, and then routes the new algorithm to the ‘brain chip’, which then relays it and overwrites the algorithms in the outlying processors.
“I do believe we have found how these machines think and evolve their thought and response. From what I can tell, the algorithms are redefined by the laser-core utilizing and referencing memories rather heavily. Just like we learn how to not touch something that’s hot, we remember getting burned last time we did. However, there is also something else which influences these changes. I believe it is the predisposed personality of the one that owns the laser-core.”
“If your head is swimming, Sir, imagine how I feel. This is tech on a level I’m not quite sure anyone is familiar with. Sentient AI is just starting to break out of labs here on Earth, these Cybertronian automatons have been evolving for millions of years.” He sips from his mug. “Right, well, that would be the update for today. We’ll be getting back to it. Hopefully we will have some of those locked memories transferred into a video for you to view.
“Tech-01, out.”