text: Boot attempt 999999 Warning low battery Critical disk failure Check hardware for moisture damage Rebooting &#x200B; Boot attempt 0000001 Warning low battery Hard disk online Some disk functions may not be available Please perform emergency maintenance when it is safe to do so &#x200B; I am standing in a small grove of trees. I remember these trees but they are larger than they were only moments ago. I have been detached from my unit. My pings have so far gone unanswered. Sensors indicate that critical maintenance is necessary for extended operation. Solar battery is charging slowly; 16.5 hours until fully charged. Entering rest mode. Battery is fully charged; estimated battery life is 48 hours at maximum functionality. AI engine is back online. Much of my data is gone and my hard disk speed is critically low. Has someone erased my memory or have I... forgotten? Still no response to my pings. I walk to the edge of the grove and peer through the dense foliage. I do not remember this place being so overgrown. My clock battery has died and I am unable to ascertain how long I have been offline. Through the leaves I see a vast plain, cut by a river that runs North to South. At the mouth of this river there should be a city... What was the city called? I climb through the brush into the scorching sunlight. The sun seems much harsher than normal. Applying neutral density filter to visual sensors. There are many animals about. Most, like squirrels and deer, are logged in my encyclopedia. Some, like the large beetles, must have been erased from my hard drive over time. I do not remember any insect species exceeding 2 meters in length. Much of the landscape is cratered and covered with ancient rubble, another detail I seem to have forgotten. Self maintenance requires a backup hard drive, which I do not possess. I will need to reach a waystation to repair critical systems. Nearest waystation detected 3 km South, along the river. The flora are highly resistant to my progress, and weapons systems are offline so I will have to find some kind of tool to cut through the foliage. I notice a small stone building, the lone structure that remains standing in the clearing. Its wooden door has long since rotted away, so I assume the structure is uninhabited and i will scan the interior for useful supplies. Furniture lies strewn about the floor of the small house, and many small mammals and very large insects inhabit every corner of the building. The place does not appear to have been ransacked by either men or machines, mercifully. A room at the back of the building holds various farming tools and supplies, chiefly a large machete that will make clearing the brush much easier. As I collect the machete I notice a long decayed and scavenged human corpse in the corner of the room. Upon further analysis, it seems the human was exposed to lethal amounts of radiation. Switching radiation detection systems online. Sensors indicate higher-than-normal levels of radiation in the atmosphere, possibly fallout from a nuclear detonation. After more than an hour cutting through the dense brush, I reach another small grove. Lying in the center of the grove is another sentry unit, though this one seems to be a newer model than myself. I do not recognize it. I approach the fallen unit cautiously and begin to remove the chassis to search for useable parts. Most of the bolts are rusted so it is difficult to remove the chassis without damaging it. Finally, after much careful work, the body of the sentry lies split open in the grass. Most of its systems are beyond repair, but the hard drive appears to be functional. I begin to affix the drive to the backup slot behind my chest panel, but in my haste i forget to format it. Suddenly I am overwhelmed with horrible, visceral memories of war. In a single moment I experience a hundred years of torturous bloodshed and nuclear chaos. I begin to feel the emotions of the sentry unit wash over me. These are much more advanced and nuanced emotions than those supported by my Artificial Neural Network and version numbers indicate that this sentry was built... Wait... 70 years after my own systems went offline? A rabbit hops up to me and begins cocking her head to examine me. I am overjoyed at the sight of the creature, for reasons I cannot explain. Why am I reaching out to touch the rabbit? She looks shocked and runs away. She must be scared of me. I hate this; I wish I could touch her. &#x200B; DANGER PROXIMITY SENSORS DETECT A HOSTILE BODY ENGAGING WEAPONS CANNOT ENGAGE WEAPONS P<EA@< P"@FORM C:#$TICAL MAIN<@:CE &#x200B; I whip around to face the threat, only to be met by a rapidly descending - is that a spider? - hurtling toward me from the canopy. The arachnoid is approximately 4 meters in length and easily overpowers me. I attempt to fire a sonic pulse to disable the mutant predator, only to be met with a flurry of corrupted error messages. The creature sinks its fangs into my chassis, missing vital systems by mere centimeters. Another blow will be terminal. I look around instinctively for backup units, forgetting for a moment that seemingly every sentry for kilometers around has been disabled. I do, however, find something that may be able to incapacitate the creature; the machete lies just within arm's reach. I grip it tightly and thrust it toward the body of my adversary. It finds purchase between the cephalothorax and abdomen of the spider, nearly bisecting the vicious beast. It pushes me away violently and begins thrashing on the ground as I take the opportunity to put some distance between its death throes and myself. I stare in awe as its eight massive legs begin to curl toward its chest. What is this emotion i'm feeling now? Triumph? No, that one I understand well. This is something else, something that I do not enjoy. This is guilt. But why would I feel remorse for my enemy? Nonetheless, as I stare at the now-still corpse of the freakish spider, I am sorry for having had to kill it. The incorporation of the fallen sentry's AI has made processing information much more complex, possibly more complex than my outdated hardware is capable of handling. I can't bring myself to format the drive though; I feel that these memories and emotions are important and I have to preserve them. Nearest waystation detected 1.2 km South. I pull the machete from the spider's corpse and begin to cut a path toward the waystation. For the first time I feel both fear and determination. My objective has been modified.