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Sinter Junkyard - New Phyrria - Materi Syna
It's clear there has been measures taken to prevent pollution - even the designated waste dumps are contained and organized, for the most
part. This is not to say it's particularly clean - scraps of buildings, vehicles and occasionally ships are scattered in tall, sorted piles.
Everything from landing gear to refrigerators, and even Phyrrian parts are lined up for smelting, salvage, recycling or compaction. Phyrrian Taskers
roam the large, hexagonal yard which is set upon intricate, metallic tiles fitting together like puzzle pieces. There are drains here and there, meant to collect waste that it may be properly filtered. At each 'point' of the hexagon is something like a forge. Still ever protective of their
tech, a visitor must go through the Taskers if they've gleaned a particularly high tech Phyrrian part.
Darius doesn't exist yet. What does exist is a memory back-up of DS-3633, and all the robotics technology that New Phyrria has to offer.
Thunder does indeed rumble somewhere. Winds are picking up a bit in the Sinter junkyard. Indeed, Vicky has received DS's note. She and Leucohyle have been working away on this new version for a week or so. With a quick binary chirp, the Helots move out of the way as Vicky steps into the hexagonal yard and digs around for certain parts, awaiting Leucohyle.
Having received Vicky's summons, Leu comes pelt-waddling into the Junkyard, weighted down by her winter weather gear. Iota is bearing the majority of her toolset; Omicron is pitching in by dragging a wheeled crate that does not handle terribly well along the uneven ground. "Gotyourmessage," she pant-pipes.
Vicky, having somehow gotten into /some/ sort of position of authority here, has had a corner of the lot blocked off. There is a sizable workbench fit with all manner of gadgets, and upon it is a humanoid body in progress. "And prompt as always. Worry not, Leu, no beasts can reach us in here." She gestures to the table as she fishes through a nearby bin. "Certainly something vaguely Sentinel about it," she observes.
Leucohyle clambers up towards the workbench. "Oh I I know I I spend a -lot- of time in New Phyrria," she pipes, fingers still thrumming slightly as her wired reflexes settle down from the run. "W-well yes he wanted humanoid, but not er, discreet. So relatable but not concealable, et-cetera." Stripping off her gloves, she starts laying out her tools in tidy rows. "So er, wh-what's left for us to do?"
"Ah, hah, that's right, you do." Vicky's hard look of concentration turns to triump when she draws out a part that deals with the neural net. And casually tosses it to Leu. The body is more or less 'splayed', panels folded out. "Just some programming... Small tweaks here and there." Vicky sets to work on said tweaks. "I guess I don't blame him for declining an organic exterior."
There is a brief electronic whine as Leu goes fumbling for the part, the casual toss setting off the little clone's wired reflexes again. Unfurling a cable, Leu connects her own neural interface into the neural net. "Running diagnostic," she pipes, eyes flickering out of focus. "Zero fragmentation, matching to original mnemonic matrix."
Vicky watches Leucohyle out of some hardcore peripheral vision as she welds some things into place, crouched atop the workbench itself. She tests a few joints, triple checks all of the wiring, and sets to work folding things up.
The lenses of Leu's holo-specs flicker as she reaches up to rub her watering eyes. "My word, that's a lot of data. Synchronization complete, zero packet loss." With the utmost of care, she heads over to start installing the neural bits. "W-well I mean this way he can be humanoid without er, well worrying about people suddenly f-figuring out what he is and somehow becoming affronted. As though sapient organic species have -never-, you know, turned out to be n-not as originally-presented. Pip."
"Pip," Vicky agrees, grinning. She leaves the particularly technical things to Leucohyle - Vicky can engineer, yes, but Leucohyle is simply /brilliant/. "Yes... affronted," her grin fades, just a bit. "Well, I'll be glad to converse with him again."
Leucohyle notices Vicky's facial expression and pipes, "N-now don't you er, fret. P-people get -strange- when they find out I'm only one hundred sixty nine days eight hours nineteen minutes and thirty two thirty three thirty four seconds old, or or that my Father is Alastair Hall, or -whatever- thing they happen to want to find unsettling. I I do not care a whit for it but it's what they do. Bloody illogical creatures." With a few more pips and huffs, she lifts a foot to lean a little farther over the bench. Iota dutifully scuttles over to give her a boost. "And you know as much as say, Mister-Lucius did not like robots, he was kind enough to me. Some people can logically get around their prejudices." With one smooth series of gestures, she racks up a row of screws in a perfectly straight line and installs them in order.
D'aw. Leucohyle's so sweet to her robot buddies. Vicky tries not to seem too sappy. Though the mention of Lucius makes her roll her eyes. "Perhaps he is kind. I have yet to see that side of him. But I will take your word for it. I don't find your age unsettling at all." Done with most of the hardware-related tasks, she tries to help out a bit with the programming.
DS-3633 did a lot of the programming groundwork prior to leaving. Just the final optimizations to the hardware remain, as well as subtle personality tweaks that the Phyrrian was unable to make due to lacking personality of its own.
"W-well you know how males are," Leu murmurs, leaning over to tweeze a piece of errant lint out of a joint. "Very protective. I I mean obviously he wouldn't feel the need to protect you you're very strong." She pauses, and then looks up, brow furrowed. "And well he's likely not returning, I I mean I haven't heard from anyone from the Minerva at all."
Vicky's brows knit. "You don't think it's likely?" Always trust Leu with the odds. "Yes, I know how males are," she adds quietly. "Well, some." She steps back, folding her arms. "I think we've done a decent job. Though he's no Limbic."
"W-well obviously not," Leu pipes, reasonably, "They are significantly distanced from humanoid and are c-completely unsuitable for er, diplomatic purposes. Although Miss-Reilly does think that they're cute." After running one last scan, as one always does, and reviewing the torrent of data that scrolls across her holo-specs, the little clone leans over and carefully presses the button that will transmit power to the unit.
The Phyrrian on the table comes to life. First moving the extreme digits, then the limbs. The eyes open, the unit sits up. Its head turns to look first at Leucohyle, staring for a second, then at Vicky. It emits a long string of binary statements: diagnostic reports, boot-up procedures, the last is "language system initializing..." Then it speaks in Standard, "Unit DS-X initialized."
Vicky grins at the movement. She doesn't get to see enough of these initial awakenings. She tilts her head listening to all of the binary reports. Everything seems in order. Are you going to go by DS-X then?" she asks in Standard.
Leucohyle bounces on the balls of her feet for a moment, allowing herself a brief 'geek-out'. "Aaaaaahohmyword," she squeaks. "I've helped construct a a fully operational Phyrrian this is so very exciting."
The unit known as DS-x continues to test its movement, mimicking human stretching, then stands up. It-He smiles to Leucohyle, "You certainly have. And you may have an opportunity for more in the future if things work out." Leaving that statement unexplained, he looks to Vicky. "DS-X is my designation. I will need a name. Suggestions?" It looks between the two.
Vicky grins as Leucohyle proceeds to nerd out. She's rather enthused herself, though isn't quite as evident. "Something that starts with 'D'. Not Damien... hah, Darwin?" She looks back to the pippy clone. "Darius?"
As soon as DS-X asks for a potential designation, more lines of green-screen text start flooding Leu's holo specs. "Something that starts with D, and ends in S, and..." At the same time as Vicky, she pipes, "Darius?" She bounces a little bit more, and a few cautious pips of amusement burst into a cascade of giggles, punctuated at the end by a tiny snort.
"Darius..." The unit considers it for a moment then nods, "Darius it is." Darius smiles and reaches out to put a hand on a shoulder of both women at the same time, giving a gentle squeeze. "Thank you both. I need to spend some time adjusting to this body and the new programming, but I think this will work quite well."