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[andy_t_roo]

upgrade the quality of the food synthasizer; we dont' care about taste, but we need enough neutrition to prevent starvation!


(increase output, but make it unable to raise hunger above hungry)

[Ross Vernal]

You feed the Soldiers 4 Units of Food and the Navigation Drone a half-unit and the last remaining Flower.

Regardless of anything else, We feel the need to dig. You select the Drone that has worked the best for digging, and feed it a Unit of Royal Jelly. You Possess the Drone and focus Our will upon it, adding an additional set of Legs, sharp Claws for digging, and spend a small amount of time toughening the muscles and mandibles before spending the last of the Royal Jelly upon an extended body and digestive track. Our awareness returns to Your body, and you examine the Level 1 Digger Drone. As an experiment, You have it eat soil, and feel a small increase in stored Iron in internal compartments near the end of the digestive track.

With this being done, You order the Soldiers, the Repair Drone, the Digging Drone, and half of the Drones to construct Internal Fortifications while the remaining Drones dig North towards the ice deposit. You personally study the Biped Corpses, and spend time dissecting each one layer by layer. You make several discoveries about the nature of the Bipeds and their internal organs, various chemicals and pheromones in their bodies, and the optimal locations which to target for rapid incapacitation.

By the time you complete your studies, the Soldiers and Advanced Drones are 75% complete with Internal Fortifications. You reach out to the remaining Drones and find them  60% of the way there - a diversion had to be made to re-route around a rather large and deep hole that appears to be an exhausted lava tube exposed to the surface, and install Earthen Installation Material to cover the breach.

With the corpses being complete, You add their remains to the Synthetic Synthesizer and attempt again to recalibrate the system. After changing with the systems and options, you find a more efficient manner to produce food, and are rewarded with three units of Low-Quality Synthetic Food. The Synthesizer is running at 75% of capacity.

It is mid-day.

[You are:
1 Queen Alien (Not Hungry)
1 Level 3 Nurse Drone (Not Hungry)
1 Level 2 Navigation/Programming Drone (Hungry)
1 Level 2 Navigation Drone (Not Hungry)
1 Level 1 Repair Drone (Not Hungry)
1 Level 1 Digging Drone (Full)
21 Basic Drones (Not Hungry)
1 Flying Warrior (Not Hungry)
4 Basic Warriors (Not Hungry)
10 Drone Larvae (Slightly Cold-Tolerant, Slightly Camouflaged)
8 Laid Drone Eggs (Slightly Cold-Tolerant, Slightly Camouflaged)
10 Laid Generation 0 Digger Eggs (Slightly Cold-Tolerant, Slightly Camouflaged)
3 Laid Generation 0 Flying Drone Eggs (Slightly Cold-Tolerant, Slightly Camouflaged)
1 Laid Soldier Egg (Slightly Cold-Tolerant, Slightly Camouflaged)
2 Laid Flying Soldier Eggs (Slightly Cold-Tolerant, Slightly Camouflaged, Double Wings)
1 Small Fertile Flying Spy Drone Larvae, Generation 0 (Slightly Cold-Tolerant, Slightly Camouflaged, Double Wings)
60 Eggs (Slightly Cold-Tolerant, Slightly Camouflaged)
8 Drone Eggs (Slightly Cold-Tolerant, Slightly Camouflaged)
12 Soldier Eggs (Slightly Cold-Tolerant, Slightly Camouflaged)
1 Flying Soldier Egg (Slightly Cold-Tolerant, Slightly Camouflaged)
2 Queen Flowers (Mature / Ripening 1/6) )
6 Active Underground Flowers
3 Ripening Underground Flowers 1/6
5 Moderately Stunted Aboveground Flowers

You own:
A Bunch of Spare Parts: (Computer, Mechanical, Fusion Reactor, Weaponry)
A Fully Charged Battery
Battery Schematics
Point Defense Laser / Smelter
A Lot of Damaged to Intact Metal Plating
Many Computer Parts / Wiring
1 Diagnostic Computer
A Kinetic Energy Penetration Warhead
1 Telemetry Computer
Display Panels
4 Dormant Flowers
Relevant Tools
A Queen-Sized Light Energy Machine Gun
A Soldier-Sized Light Energy Blaster
3 Soldier-Sized Light Pulse Blaster
3/8 Earthen Insulation Materials
Glass Insulation Materials
Functional Greenhouse Glass
5/8 Ship Thermal Insulation
3 Units of Low-Quality Synthetic Food
Iron
Water
Carbon
Nitrogen
Calcium
Phosphorus
Potassium
Oxygen
Silicon
Sulfur
Sodium
Chlorine
Scrap Metal
Scrap Plastic
A Broken Biped Flying Mechanical Scout
A Barrel of Improved Fertilizer

Your Nest:
Insulated Queen's Chamber with Two Queen's Flowers and Eggs
Insulated Improved Flower Chamber with Nine Flowers of Life
Insulated Level 2 Technology Lab
Insulated Food Synthesizer
Insulated Fusion Reactor Chamber
Improved Sensory Array
Improved Defensive Earthworks: Camouflaged Heavy Assault Armor Plating, Internal Fortifications
Insulated Agricultural Earthworks with Five Flowers of Life
Insulated Heating Tunnel
Reinforced Expansion Tunnels
{Open Dead Lava Tube}
Mostly Constructed Tunnel to Ice]

[RAM]

Engineer a drone to tend the flowers.

Improve food synthesis.

[Ross Vernal]

Engineer a drone to tend the flowers.

The tending of the Flowers is of such importance that time is automatically deducted from the day on their maintenance. Given the mental link between Us and the Flowers, it could hardly be otherwise. Regardless, You consider developing a Farmer Drone, and immediately think of useful features, such as multiple leg hairs for pollen collecting, a proboscis, and various other adaptations of use, including the Claws of the Digger Drone.

[andy_t_roo]

so we're out of immediate starvation danger..
Larva tube ...
have the navigation drone head as far down the larva tube as it can, but any sign of Human technology, people, or construction , or instability of the tunnel, it should return.

We should examine the broken flying thing from the humans - how did it fly, and what sensors did it have, also how did it talk to the home humans.
(once we have a better understanding of this we can fly better, camouflage better, and our sensors can intercept communications better)

We should also investigate the catastrophic failure of that sub-standard weapon earlier, We do not want to experience further Disappointment.

Could the mining drone use its internal iron supply to sharpen and maintain its claws?

This component of the hive mind has no current opinion on other actions other than keep digging. Always keep digging. Deeper, towards resources, areas to live, safe areas for flowers.

We don't need to lay any more eggs for now.

ooc: do we know humans are not a hive mind; ie, would we understand the concept of a separate robot entity?


-- 2 new replies?
a farmer drone ... hmm - how much time do We current divert to tending the flowers? (ie, is it worth the extra mount to feed ...)

[Ross Vernal]

Could the mining drone use its internal iron supply to sharpen and maintain its claws?

Do we know humans are not a hive mind; ie, would we understand the concept of a separate robot entity?

How much time do We current divert to Tending the flowers? Is it worth the extra mouth to feed?

That is the current intended purpose, as well as to have a small trickle of Iron Pellets coming in. It is slower and less efficient than smelting, but it will happen automatically as it digs.

Our understanding of the Bipeds is that they possess the capability to become a hivemind, and our experience shows that frequently act in manners consistent with a hivemind, although one with serious discipline issues and based on technology. Their status as individuals is unknown; however, their ability to use technology to create robots is not new to Us.

It varies. You believe that with the current amount of Flowers, a Farmer Drone would only marginally improve productivity for the Flowers - possibly an extra half-unit of food, pollen, and Jelly per plant, per cycle, but would require 1 Unit of food  per day to remain at its most efficient.

The Synthetic Synthesizer can produce 8 Units of Low-Quality Synthetic Food per day at optimal conditions. At that pace, Our current elemental supply would run out of relevant materials in 3 days. The Ice would stretch it further by an unknown amount, but past that, Our intake will only allow for 4 Units per day assuming You spend a half-day/night extracting elements.

[andy_t_roo]

ok, lets not lay any more eggs, unless it is a choice between that and re-absorbing them, as food is currently Our limiting factor.


Starvation leads to Disappointment. We want to avoid both at all costs.

[Zecro_The_Scourge]

Contemplate uses of lava. When/If possible begin a program for improving our food gathering skills, if we face the humans in battle starving our claws and teeth would falter surely.

[andy_t_roo]

we need to find larva first; there doesn't appear to be any near the surface here. (mars is historically quite stable, but with old very maga flows)

[Zecro_The_Scourge]

There is lava in our tunnels that we could potentially extract with caution.

[andy_t_roo]

where? -- "exhausted lava tube" is just a hollow rock cylinder; often quite well formed, even on earth where there's lots of environmental weathering

[Zecro_The_Scourge]

Ah, I apologize. I misread and assumed it was a proper magma tube. Have our most agile / cold resistant brood scout the surface for major volcano formations, WE would like the equivalent of olympus mons. If required use royal jelly to make this cold resistant scout!

[andy_t_roo]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volcanism_on_Mars is an interesting article i just found on wiki

[Ross Vernal]

[Meta-note: We are here.

Post coming shortly.]

[Ross Vernal]

Again, You are concerned with food. While synthetic food is certainly filling, You decide Your time is best spent on the surface with the Flowers of Life. Taking note of the earlier behavior of the Drones, You sway with the flowers for some time until You become aware of another Presence with Us. It is different, but part of Us in a manner You do not understand, but only feel. It is rather peaceful. You consider the symbiotic relationship between Us and Them.

The Flying Soldier, meanwhile, explores the Pit and returns. The Drones dig down and out, preparing a Flower Pit far, far away from the Hive for an emergency. The Soldiers continue to make small improvements to the Defensive Earthworks. We continue about our Work.

You remain outside with Them.

You continue to remain outside until after dark. With a sudden jolt, You untangle yourself from Them and notice that it is... very cold. You can certainly survive the night out here, and can survive traveling from the Agricultural Earthworks inside, but You suspect the Flowers cannot. Despite this, you still have no idea how to produce more Food from the Flowers.

It is a quarter past night.