Mr. Roboto

[DoS Archive]

From: dosdefcon@aol.com (DoS Defcon)
Date: 11 Mar 2000 12:15:54 EST

The little robot sputtered its way down back alleys and rarely used roads to come to the grate in the sewers that was the entrance to it's home. Sparks were shooting randomly from the cracked dome of it's head and the systems failure light had been internally flashing for almost twenty minutes.
Touching a small spot on the grate, the Dueling Operations System or DoS Defcon, sent a small surge of electrical current into the metal. It immediately responded by swinging inward and up, revealing a well maintained pathway. It rolled listlessly down into the depths of the sewers more by sheer physics than internal power. Nearly spent on energy and with systems shutdown at hand, the bot tumbled into the underground laboratory.
"Father?" The subwoofers barely managed to peep out. An old man with unkempt, wild white hair spun around from the mechanical parts he was intently studying. His kind, wrinkled face screwed up into a look of purest anguish when he saw what had happened to his pride and joy.
"My little one!?" He shouted as he half ran, half limped by a countertop and grabbed an emergency energy pack and then went straight for the machine. Without wasting words he popped open the chestplate and with a few desperate tugs, unhooked the main power connectors and reinstalled them in his emergency battery. Immediately the warning lights inside the little machine ceased their urgent flashing and it was able to register a stabilization of
it's systems.
"Whatever happened to you? Who did this?" The old man with the palsied hands demanded as he lovingly stroked Defcon's little dome and chestplate. All the while the small machine was playing a sad child's weeping sound through it's subwoofers, exclaiming the distress it felt.
"Noone, Father," It replied in it's own voice, the woofers having shut off. "Self dueled last night as was wished and self was... was... hurt." The child's
weeping came back again, only filled with a hint of regret. The robot continued it's broken story as the old man began hooking some cables from a bank of computer screens into the robot's chest.
"Let me re-scan your memory of the night and see what I find, I'm surprised you're hurt so badly, that shouldn't have happened." Pressing a few buttons the man was able to orient on the two duels the bot had fought. "Hmm, you did very well in this first one."
Said Father, which caused the little metallic man to perk up a bit.
Suddenly the old man exclaimed "Aha! Here it is! You both seemed to thrust into each other and you sustained a crossed circuit in you dueling software." Still scanning the files the old man's face dropped and his breath caught in a hitch when he saw the second duel. "A Warlord? You dueled a warlord in that current state?" The little machine tried to protest but the old man held up a hand. "I understand your internal repair programs failed and
you were unaware, that is my fault. I will fix that immediately. However," He shook his finger vigorously at the Bot while he chided, "I do not want you dueling warlords or anything above that until you've had a chance to make sure your circuitry and framework can sustain the damage. They are simply too strong for you right now and the upgrades to your armor and weaponry won't be done for at least a week."
"But...but..,Father, Self can beat most of them, Self knows all of the percentages and can anticipate moves." The voice took on a small, distant sound as the old man shook his head.
"You couldn't anticipate the system failure and you couldn't anticipate the match once your dueling software was compromised. Until you can train yourself to know your own body, I must insist that you not duel these people, they have too much skill and you are unable to predict the random actions of man." Fathers tone was final and the bot knew it. It's metallic arms hung listlessly by it's sides and the view window showed a tear streaked face.
Kneeling next to the little robot the old man put his aged arms around him and whispered, "I can't afford to lose you, my little man, you are all I have to live for." He pulled the robot to him and made comforting small talk, the robot reached up and played with his wild hair and giggled an entirely child like giggle.

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Later that night while Defcon was powered down and performing repairs, the old man typed away at the bank of computers.

Prime Directives:

1) Protect self at all costs.
2) Do not reveal the location of the lab to anyone.
3) Protect the innocent at all times if lives are in danger.
4) Kill Noone unless it is absolutely necessary.

He then added as a safety precaution:

5) Do not duel any one of ranking two levels greater than your own.

Nodding to himself, the man called "Father" uploaded the improved file to Defcon's hard drive and then went to sleep. Although the Parkinson's disease was spreading rapidly now and he wouldn't last out the year, he couldn't take any chance of his child being hurt.