[img]https://img.roleplayerguild.com/prod/users/e3d432f0-f36b-4a5c-95e6-650f64e62c48.png[/img]

[center][i]I am awoken from my slumber.
I sense motion.
It eats through the stone.
It is not Air, for I sense footsteps.
It is not Fire, for fire cannot burrow.
It is not Hydrocarbon or Ice, for it would not come this far inland.
Its Flicker is strange.
It thus can't be Stone or Meteor.
It gets closer.
It bites into me!
Who is this that dares challenge me?[/i][/center]
[center][h2]* * *[/h2][/center]

The colony sprawled outwards, with the usual grid of Processors and railway tracks surrounding a Nexus. Towards the northern edge was an extensive strip mine, digging up a large iron ore vein. Many Harvesters worked there, producing many tonnes of steel being freighted out to other colonies. Operation was as normal.

Then there was a tremor and the earth shifted. There was a sound like an explosion from the mines, where the tremor happened.

[code]promethean.N000130: Error: Communication failure with H207819. Last known location: [25.098 20.105][/code]
[code]promethean.H207650: Destruction of H207819 confirmed.[/code]
[code]promethean.N000130> new_hazard(Location=[25.098 20.105],Description="earth tremor",Risk=80,Action="investigate")[/code]
[code]promethean.H207650: Investigating Hazard No. 000392.[/code]

The Harvester plodded closer to the collapsed stone wall which had crushed H207819, illuminating it with headlights for optical inspection and pinging it with sonar. Some of the other Prometheans were already moving away in case of another tremor, especially the Energisers whose high cost gave them greater bias towards self-preservation. Yet as H207650 looked at the stone, it realised that this was not an ordinary collapsed wall. The earth was still in a single piece, and there was no fault line along the ground to suggest that the chasm had folded up.

[code]promethean.H207650: Unable to classify Hazard No. 000392. Sending data to N000130.[/code]

There was a barely perceptible shift in the stone. A circle of deep black stone revealed itself on the earth facing the Harvester.

[i]Another one?[/i]

The stone wall lurched, hurtling towards the Harvester, and reduced it to a mangled wreck of scrap metal with a horrific crash.

[code]promethean.N000130: Error: Communication failure with H207650. Last known location: [25.098 20.105][/code]
[code]promethean.N000130> update_hazard(000392,Risk=705,Action="avoid")[/code]
[code]promethean.E002049: Destruction of H207650 confirmed.[/code]
[code]promethean.H207702: Warning! Unexpected earth motions at [25.098 20.105][/code]
[code]promethean.M302199: Infrastructure damaged at [25.098 20.105][/code]
[i]What unnatural abominations are these?[/i]

The stone rose from the mine. Cranes, conveyor belts and rails twisted and snapped with tortured screeches as the earth forced its way through them.

[i]You attempt to take my domain.[/i]

The stone kept rising, bulging up from the pit, until it manifested into an enormous towering form, easily a hundred meters tall. Three broad legs supported the mountainous body, which was capped by a dome which might be its head. On this dome were several relatively small circular patches of very dark stone. A careful observer would notice that these patches flexed and tilted, and a particularly creative observer might suggest that these were its eyes. And these eyes angled themselves towards the Nexus, whose own towering form clearly marked it as the chief of these strange metal entities.

[i]I will crush you![/i]
[right][url=https://youtu.be/tL9Nhxh91Lw]Revolt Production Music - Athos[/url][/right]
An arm almost as long as the djinn was tall cleft itself from the rocky side of its body. The lanky limb lashed across the mine, tearing up cables, rails and other structures, as well as plowing through many Prometheans.

[code]promethean.M298701: Destruction of H208945 confirmed.[/code]
[code]promethean.E002049: Warning! Critical damage received.[/code]
[code]promethean.M302199: Infrastructure damaged at [25.098 20.106][/code]

Dozens more warnings flashed through the digital aether as a second arm peeled out and swept through the other side of mine.

[code]promethean.N000130> update_hazard(000392,Description="hostile entity",Risk=9500,Action="eliminate")[/code]
[code]promethean.N000130> new_task(Type="demolish",Target=hazard.000392,Priority=9800)[/code]
[code]Processing Task No. 312798[/code]

Harvesters trundled up to the djinni as it started walking and closed in to mine through its legs. The djinni kicked and stomped, crushing and toppling the machines. Even as the Harvesters fell, dozens of Manipulators swarmed in from the ground and off the walls, latched onto the djinni and drilled into it. Cracks formed in the stone, but this seemed to only make the djinni angrier as it brushed off the Manipulators like insects. Two steps later and the djinni had crested the southern slope of the mine and entered the colony.

The Processors had already broken ranks and were evacuating, with glacial speed. A sweeping stone arm ruptured dozens and pushed them aside.

[code]promethean.N000130: Urgent! High risk hazard. Destruction imminent. No available protocols.[/code]
[code]promethean.N000130: Requesting cloud computation.[/code]
[code]promethean.N000001: Request granted. Synchronising computational resources.[/code]

The collective consciousness of over a hundred Nexi, connected via radio, was brought to bear on the frantic task of finding a way to combat this colossal entity of raging stone. A few seconds later, ideas rolled in, and the Nexus took action.

[code]promethean.N000130> new_task(Parent=task.312798,Type="deliver",Object="explosives",Destination=hazard.000392)[/code]

Processors across the colony shifted gears as they prepared and outputted any explosive they could. With great haste these were transported by rails and loaded onto every Carrier the colony had. The roar of jets joined the sound of thumping stone and tortured metal as the djinni advanced, crushing Processors and swatting aside Manipulators. The Carriers circled and closed in.

[i]I am stronger than Air.[/i]

The lanky limbs were well suited to swatting down flying entities. An arm lashed out at the nearest Carrier and struck it squarely. It detonated. The mining charges shattered the arm, and left the djinni reeling in pain. The other Carriers seized their opportunity and dived. Three Carriers loaded with high explosives rammed into the djinni at speed, each exploding and blasting apart the stone.

Terribly wounded, the djinni collapsed to the ground. The other Carriers forwent their suicide dive in favour of dropping their explosive cargo upon the djinni. Manipulators swarmed in to drill and hammer away at the fallen djinni, who thrashed around and crushed many of them but was overwhelmed by their sheer numbers. Harvesters also closed in and tore through the stone. The Prometheans were unrelenting, and the djinni was reduced to gravel.

[code]Task No. 312798 complete[/code]
[code]promethean.N000130> remove_hazard(000392)[/code]

The stonedjinni had left a trail of total destruction. The crushed bodies of hundreds of Prometheans littered the ground, as well as the twisted wrecks of whatever infrastructure had stood in the way. Hundreds more Prometheans had been left severely damaged, both from the rampaging djinni and from the shrapnel from the exploding Carriers.

There was no mourning or grieving among the Prometheans. They did not have the capacity for such emotions. There was only the calculation of losses and the organisation of recovery. Already the surviving Manipulators were busy at work salvaging parts and scrap from the destroyed Prometheans and repairing those who had been damaged. The Nexus and the Processors got busy with manufacturing more Prometheans to replace the losses.

[code]promethean.N000130> new_direction("Make colonies defensible")[/code]
[code]promethean.N000001: Directive No. 000003 received[/code]

[hider=Robots vs Elementals]
Firstly, I would like to thank Cyclone for the idea of doing a post with Prometheans and Elementals.

A Promethean colony accidentally digs into a slumbering stone-lord. The djinni makes reference to some fairly exotic elemental types, such as Ice, Hydrocarbon (liquid hydrocarbons, that is) and Meteor, although considering the environment they are probably quite common here.

Needless to say, the djinni gets mad when a Harvester tries to mine it and crushes the robot. When it notices that there's a whole colony of them, digging up its domain, it gets really mad and goes Godzilla on the colony, heading for the Nexus.

The Nexus freaks out and sets the priority of stopping the djinni to over 9000.

Harvesters and Manipulators try to dig through the elemental, but against a 100m tall raging stonedjinni they don't have any stopping power.

The local Nexus connects to the global Nexi hive brain to figure out a solution. That solution is to load Carriers with mining explosives (or any other explosives at hand) and kamikaze dive into the djinni. It's quite effective, and the Prometheans manage to kill the djinni.

As the Prometheans repair the damage to the colony, a new Directive is declared: Make colonies defensible.
[/hider]