[SecUnit found a room after all the fighting went down, collapsed on the bed, and spent the entire night watching old Sanctuary Moon episodes. There are limited larger rooms on the convoy, but - to be honest, SecUnit didn't give a fuck about what room anyone else wanted. If it had to look at, talk to, or think about humans for the rest of the night, it was probably going to do something stupid like walk off into the wilderness. Or actually commit the murders it had named itself for.
Now that it's morning, and the announcements are going out about the departure... well. It really doesn't want to go out there and face humans, still. But the prospect doesn't have it crawling out of its own skin any more. Even better, the weird transformation to their arm is gone, leaving only a shredded sleeve in its wake.
So - while the humans are all busy doing human things like shoving food in their mouths and getting dressed, SecUnit ducks its way out of the Convoy to make a security sweep, and... ]
This is mine.
[The thing that attracts SecUnit's attention to the ATV isn't the keys left hanging off the handlebars - no, it's the black-visored motorcycle helmet and gloves, sitting propped on one of the storage compartments. It snatches those up, only belatedly registering the vines that have grown up around the tires, which it starts prodding, dubiously, with a booted foot. It's probably not a good idea to just drive through those to rip them away, huh.]
3/5. Wreck/Nest/Stasis, Throughout the day
[Of course, it's not as simple as just driving. SecUnit has to take the time to get used to driving the ATV - it has shuttle piloting modules, but those are pretty universally shit, and getting the hang of things takes it some time. Only after it's done that does it move to the front of the Convoy, listening to the building chatter on the radio (and running an audio drama it's been meaning to get to in the background, a narrative detective story that turns out to not be half-bad, if a little predictable).
Periodically it takes advantage of the vehicle's rough-and-ready nature to pull out past the confines of the road and the lead of the Convoy, darting into the forest to scan the abandoned vehicles and the ruins around them. Every so often, it pulls the ATV to a halt, holding up a hand in warning to any other nearby drivers. Threat assessment has been getting a workout today, as something about this area is making it spike.]
Saw something. Hold back.
[Then it gets off the vehicle, taking a few cautious steps forward. Good thing about the shredded sleeve? It doesn't have to worry about that energy weapon damaging its jacket further, so it leaves that one rolled up and primed at the ready. Internally? It's chanting fuck, fuck, fuck this fucking road. Externally none of that shows in its body language. It's a professional. And it's got a helmet, to hide the tension in its jaw and brow.]
6. Radio Star
This isn't a continuous broadcast. But it's old.
[SecUnit had been ready to make a token attempt at exploring the strange cabin and the radio station as the Convoy approaches, but when the broadcast starts up it's distracted, immediately pulling to a halt so that it can focus on the broadcast itself. Its attention swivels between that and the building up ahead, one hand sliding into its pocket, before stilling.]
... Why and how was it activated?
[... It doesn't sound too concerned about the warning itself.]
7. Monster (cw: bug features, transformation)
[Maybe it should have been more concerned with the warning.
The shock of the change is like a zap from the governor module - worse than that, because it burns through SecUnit's brain and down through its limbs. It's like being electrocuted. Like being doused in acid. Like someone decided to put it through a full reformat when its brain was still active, just for fun. Its systems throw panicked errors that its organic pieces respond to with a flood of fear-anger-sheer adrenaline, as it stumbles a few steps forward, collapsing onto elbows and knees as the transformation begins.
With its helmet and clothing in the way, it's hard to tell the full extent of the transformation, but - its skin writhes, as chitinous plates overlay themselves across its body, twisting the shape of it. A deep thrumming fills the air around it, a buzz that sets hair to raising, like a wasp hovering just close enough to be heard. It coils up, frozen in place on the ground --
Until it catches movement, nearby - and its head snaps up, directly towards the disturbance, the buzzing increasing to a nearly piercing hum as it coils itself onto its, feet staring and ready to pounce, bracing itself with an arm - a hand that snaps into a scythe dug deep into the dirt. The helmet masks its face, and its eyes - but it doesn't mask the pressure of threat that its attention brings, as its head tracks towards the closest moving thing.]
SecUnit/Murderbot | The Murderbot Diaries
[SecUnit found a room after all the fighting went down, collapsed on the bed, and spent the entire night watching old Sanctuary Moon episodes. There are limited larger rooms on the convoy, but - to be honest, SecUnit didn't give a fuck about what room anyone else wanted. If it had to look at, talk to, or think about humans for the rest of the night, it was probably going to do something stupid like walk off into the wilderness. Or actually commit the murders it had named itself for.
Now that it's morning, and the announcements are going out about the departure... well. It really doesn't want to go out there and face humans, still. But the prospect doesn't have it crawling out of its own skin any more. Even better, the weird transformation to their arm is gone, leaving only a shredded sleeve in its wake.
So - while the humans are all busy doing human things like shoving food in their mouths and getting dressed, SecUnit ducks its way out of the Convoy to make a security sweep, and... ]
This is mine.
[The thing that attracts SecUnit's attention to the ATV isn't the keys left hanging off the handlebars - no, it's the black-visored motorcycle helmet and gloves, sitting propped on one of the storage compartments. It snatches those up, only belatedly registering the vines that have grown up around the tires, which it starts prodding, dubiously, with a booted foot. It's probably not a good idea to just drive through those to rip them away, huh.]
3/5. Wreck/Nest/Stasis, Throughout the day
[Of course, it's not as simple as just driving. SecUnit has to take the time to get used to driving the ATV - it has shuttle piloting modules, but those are pretty universally shit, and getting the hang of things takes it some time. Only after it's done that does it move to the front of the Convoy, listening to the building chatter on the radio (and running an audio drama it's been meaning to get to in the background, a narrative detective story that turns out to not be half-bad, if a little predictable).
Periodically it takes advantage of the vehicle's rough-and-ready nature to pull out past the confines of the road and the lead of the Convoy, darting into the forest to scan the abandoned vehicles and the ruins around them. Every so often, it pulls the ATV to a halt, holding up a hand in warning to any other nearby drivers. Threat assessment has been getting a workout today, as something about this area is making it spike.]
Saw something. Hold back.
[Then it gets off the vehicle, taking a few cautious steps forward. Good thing about the shredded sleeve? It doesn't have to worry about that energy weapon damaging its jacket further, so it leaves that one rolled up and primed at the ready. Internally? It's chanting fuck, fuck, fuck this fucking road. Externally none of that shows in its body language. It's a professional. And it's got a helmet, to hide the tension in its jaw and brow.]
6. Radio Star
This isn't a continuous broadcast. But it's old.
[SecUnit had been ready to make a token attempt at exploring the strange cabin and the radio station as the Convoy approaches, but when the broadcast starts up it's distracted, immediately pulling to a halt so that it can focus on the broadcast itself. Its attention swivels between that and the building up ahead, one hand sliding into its pocket, before stilling.]
... Why and how was it activated?
[... It doesn't sound too concerned about the warning itself.]
7. Monster (cw: bug features, transformation)
[Maybe it should have been more concerned with the warning.
The shock of the change is like a zap from the governor module - worse than that, because it burns through SecUnit's brain and down through its limbs. It's like being electrocuted. Like being doused in acid. Like someone decided to put it through a full reformat when its brain was still active, just for fun. Its systems throw panicked errors that its organic pieces respond to with a flood of fear-anger-sheer adrenaline, as it stumbles a few steps forward, collapsing onto elbows and knees as the transformation begins.
With its helmet and clothing in the way, it's hard to tell the full extent of the transformation, but - its skin writhes, as chitinous plates overlay themselves across its body, twisting the shape of it. A deep thrumming fills the air around it, a buzz that sets hair to raising, like a wasp hovering just close enough to be heard. It coils up, frozen in place on the ground --
Until it catches movement, nearby - and its head snaps up, directly towards the disturbance, the buzzing increasing to a nearly piercing hum as it coils itself onto its, feet staring and ready to pounce, bracing itself with an arm - a hand that snaps into a scythe dug deep into the dirt. The helmet masks its face, and its eyes - but it doesn't mask the pressure of threat that its attention brings, as its head tracks towards the closest moving thing.]