@mvrderbot
Perihelion does not remember shutting down. Clearly it did at some point, though, because now it is booting up. Once it is aware enough, it tries to run a typical diagnostic scan, and its system immediately floods with error messages. Its sluggish systems take an eternity (0.3 seconds) to analyze what they come down to: Hardware incompatible.
This is incorrect. The hardware can’t be incompatible with the programs it normally uses to scan it. Perihelion is the hardware. It’s not as though it’s trying to diagnose some external, separate system.
100% of its onboard sensors are not returning data. Its only inputs are a few visual and audio feeds from an unidentified source, all clustered in one place, somewhere planetside and outdoors. The two cameras’ proximity and synchronized, flitting movements remind it of video feed it has received from Murderbot’s eye cameras. But it has no connection established to its friend (or anyone) currently. So its only sensory input is some random little [bot? drone?] that isn’t even on the ship.
Very much not panicking at all, it takes in and analyzes its surroundings. At least it’s in control of these sensors’ movements. There are humans around, which it can’t seem to ID through the feed, and... it freezes to stare at one figure in particular.
It takes far too long to analyze, again. It isn’t used to seeing it from this angle, or interpreting its presence exclusively through limited camera views like this, but this is a SecUnit--and furthermore, unmistakably, this is its SecUnit.
It pings Murderbot in a very normal way, and tries to use a tone that isn’t horribly tense in the feed, and mostly succeeds. What is happening?












