Síofra was busy recalibrating Octa's tentacle servo-motors which had gotten completely misaligned during Lilly's little experiment in operating the big battle drone. Thankfully the physical damage to Octa had been minimal, but readjusting the drone's inner workings and operating mechanisms was a more difficult and lengthier task. As Síofra was recalibrating and running diagnostic after each calibration, one tentacle at a time, she was effortlessly swept back into the past when she was still a loyal TVP soldier. [hr] [i]Five years ago[/i] TVP as organization believed in maximizing everything. This applied to their soldiers as well. They were all required to be proficient in more than just soldiering. For Síofra it was tech. She'd always been drawn to it and had shown an aptitude towards it and TVP had given her the opportunity to be trained adequately in it. Even more so than the average tech out there. As TVP did nothing halfway. You either knew your craft to perfection, or you were out. And Síofra was good. By the time her training had ended she was proficient in dealing with all kinds of tech, recognizing, fixing and modding. But she'd shown an incredible aptitude with drones and to a lesser extent hacking. Two valuable skills for TVP. Whenever Síofra's unit wasn't out on a collection run she could be found elbows deep within the innards of some TVP drone. And boy, did TVP have some fine beasts in their stables! Síofra loved servicing the drones. They were straightforward. She understood them way better than people. If something went wrong with them, they had a way to tell her exactly what was wrong so she could fix it. People were not like that at all! Most of the times they didn't even know something was wrong with them. And even when they did, they had no idea what they needed to become better again. It was so frustrating! "Yeah, people are frustrating. I better stick with you guys." The tech soldier said as she petted lovingly one of TVP's reconnaissance drones. [i]Okay, so maybe it's more of a spy drone than reconnaissance.[/i] Síofra admitted begrudgingly to herself. But it was a dog eat dog in the corporate world and the other corps out there were constantly trying to get a leg up on TVP and weren't above stealing corporate secrets to get ahead of the game. "Cheaters!" Síofra muttered while fixing the outer plating on the little spy drone. It was clear from the damage it had gotten in a scrap with a bigger defense drone. "You barely got out with your chrome skin, huh lil' guy." The tech said attaching the brand new plating on the diminutive drone. "There! All better now." She said as she ran a final diagnostic and moved to a much larger defense and battle drone. A complaint had come down the chain that it was acting up and to run a diagnostic on its higher brain functions and directives. "Let's see what's up with you, big fella." Síofra said quietly as she linked up with the drone's core unit. [color=00aeef][i]>initiate_full_diagnostic...[img]https://orig00.deviantart.net/9ef8/f/2013/323/6/4/white_large_blinking_text_cursor_by_neripixu-d6uu9q6.gif[/img] running_diagnostic...[img]https://orig00.deviantart.net/9ef8/f/2013/323/6/4/white_large_blinking_text_cursor_by_neripixu-d6uu9q6.gif[/img] diagnostic_runtime_180_seconds...[img]https://orig00.deviantart.net/9ef8/f/2013/323/6/4/white_large_blinking_text_cursor_by_neripixu-d6uu9q6.gif[/img] ...[img]https://orig00.deviantart.net/9ef8/f/2013/323/6/4/white_large_blinking_text_cursor_by_neripixu-d6uu9q6.gif[/img] 50_seconds...[img]https://orig00.deviantart.net/9ef8/f/2013/323/6/4/white_large_blinking_text_cursor_by_neripixu-d6uu9q6.gif[/img] ...[img]https://orig00.deviantart.net/9ef8/f/2013/323/6/4/white_large_blinking_text_cursor_by_neripixu-d6uu9q6.gif[/img] 30_seconds...[img]https://orig00.deviantart.net/9ef8/f/2013/323/6/4/white_large_blinking_text_cursor_by_neripixu-d6uu9q6.gif[/img] 10...[img]https://orig00.deviantart.net/9ef8/f/2013/323/6/4/white_large_blinking_text_cursor_by_neripixu-d6uu9q6.gif[/img] 9...[img]https://orig00.deviantart.net/9ef8/f/2013/323/6/4/white_large_blinking_text_cursor_by_neripixu-d6uu9q6.gif[/img] 8...[img]https://orig00.deviantart.net/9ef8/f/2013/323/6/4/white_large_blinking_text_cursor_by_neripixu-d6uu9q6.gif[/img] 7...[img]https://orig00.deviantart.net/9ef8/f/2013/323/6/4/white_large_blinking_text_cursor_by_neripixu-d6uu9q6.gif[/img] 6...[img]https://orig00.deviantart.net/9ef8/f/2013/323/6/4/white_large_blinking_text_cursor_by_neripixu-d6uu9q6.gif[/img] 5...[img]https://orig00.deviantart.net/9ef8/f/2013/323/6/4/white_large_blinking_text_cursor_by_neripixu-d6uu9q6.gif[/img] 4...[img]https://orig00.deviantart.net/9ef8/f/2013/323/6/4/white_large_blinking_text_cursor_by_neripixu-d6uu9q6.gif[/img] 3...[img]https://orig00.deviantart.net/9ef8/f/2013/323/6/4/white_large_blinking_text_cursor_by_neripixu-d6uu9q6.gif[/img] 2...[img]https://orig00.deviantart.net/9ef8/f/2013/323/6/4/white_large_blinking_text_cursor_by_neripixu-d6uu9q6.gif[/img] 1...[img]https://orig00.deviantart.net/9ef8/f/2013/323/6/4/white_large_blinking_text_cursor_by_neripixu-d6uu9q6.gif[/img] diagnostic_complete...[img]https://orig00.deviantart.net/9ef8/f/2013/323/6/4/white_large_blinking_text_cursor_by_neripixu-d6uu9q6.gif[/img] error_found_in_memory_banks_in_direct_contradiction_of_prime_directive...[img]https://orig00.deviantart.net/9ef8/f/2013/323/6/4/white_large_blinking_text_cursor_by_neripixu-d6uu9q6.gif[/img][/i][/color] "What the fuck!" Síofra exclaimed staring at the diagnostic readout. She ran a couple more additional and deeper diagnostics to make sense of the first one. It turned out the drone had its memory banks tempered with. But by some amateur who'd done a piss poor job of it. They'd left some residual files in the banks that were obviously in contradiction with one of the drone's prime directives, which was leading to the weird behaviors. [color=00aeef][i]>display_aberrant_memory_log...[img]https://orig00.deviantart.net/9ef8/f/2013/323/6/4/white_large_blinking_text_cursor_by_neripixu-d6uu9q6.gif[/img] processing...[img]https://orig00.deviantart.net/9ef8/f/2013/323/6/4/white_large_blinking_text_cursor_by_neripixu-d6uu9q6.gif[/img] error...[img]https://orig00.deviantart.net/9ef8/f/2013/323/6/4/white_large_blinking_text_cursor_by_neripixu-d6uu9q6.gif[/img] unable_to_display_memory_log...[img]https://orig00.deviantart.net/9ef8/f/2013/323/6/4/white_large_blinking_text_cursor_by_neripixu-d6uu9q6.gif[/img] video_corrupted...[img]https://orig00.deviantart.net/9ef8/f/2013/323/6/4/white_large_blinking_text_cursor_by_neripixu-d6uu9q6.gif[/img] >play_audio...[img]https://orig00.deviantart.net/9ef8/f/2013/323/6/4/white_large_blinking_text_cursor_by_neripixu-d6uu9q6.gif[/img] warning_audio_file_partialy_corrupted...[img]https://orig00.deviantart.net/9ef8/f/2013/323/6/4/white_large_blinking_text_cursor_by_neripixu-d6uu9q6.gif[/img] >play_audio_compensating_for_corrupted_sectors... playing_audio...[img]https://orig00.deviantart.net/9ef8/f/2013/323/6/4/white_large_blinking_text_cursor_by_neripixu-d6uu9q6.gif[/img] segment_[url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqHp2H1miKc]913*123/54[/url]...[img]https://orig00.deviantart.net/9ef8/f/2013/323/6/4/white_large_blinking_text_cursor_by_neripixu-d6uu9q6.gif[/img] segment_[url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nXEPiQj0EM]1384*364/87[/url]...[img]https://orig00.deviantart.net/9ef8/f/2013/323/6/4/white_large_blinking_text_cursor_by_neripixu-d6uu9q6.gif[/img][/i][/color] By the time the first audio segment had finished playing Síofra was so weirded out by what appeared to be some sort of ritual chanting that the second segment caught her completely unprepared and she jumped with a start hearing the horrified girl's scream, her trusty goggles clamoring to the ground. "Shit! What the bloody hell was that!?!" The tech kneeled, picked up her goggles, put them back on and forced herself to listen to both audio segments again and again. After half an hour she was pale and cold sweat was running down her spine. [color=00aeef][i]>display_gps_location_in_relation_to_aberrant_memory_log...[img]https://orig00.deviantart.net/9ef8/f/2013/323/6/4/white_large_blinking_text_cursor_by_neripixu-d6uu9q6.gif[/img] error...[img]https://orig00.deviantart.net/9ef8/f/2013/323/6/4/white_large_blinking_text_cursor_by_neripixu-d6uu9q6.gif[/img] requested_gps_location_corrupted...[img]https://orig00.deviantart.net/9ef8/f/2013/323/6/4/white_large_blinking_text_cursor_by_neripixu-d6uu9q6.gif[/img][/i][/color] [i]This again![/i] Síofra mused. [i]Where the fuck have you been? What did you see to warrant a memory and gps log dump?[/i] [color=00aeef][i]>triangulate_an_approximate_location...[img]https://orig00.deviantart.net/9ef8/f/2013/323/6/4/white_large_blinking_text_cursor_by_neripixu-d6uu9q6.gif[/img] triangulating...[img]https://orig00.deviantart.net/9ef8/f/2013/323/6/4/white_large_blinking_text_cursor_by_neripixu-d6uu9q6.gif[/img] approximate_location_triangulated...[img]https://orig00.deviantart.net/9ef8/f/2013/323/6/4/white_large_blinking_text_cursor_by_neripixu-d6uu9q6.gif[/img] >display...[img]https://orig00.deviantart.net/9ef8/f/2013/323/6/4/white_large_blinking_text_cursor_by_neripixu-d6uu9q6.gif[/img][/i][/color] Síofra stared stunned at the blinking location displayed on her goggles' visor.