Sentinel

995 was fast approaching the end of its useful life and under normal circumstance would probably have been decommissioned years ago. It had been 52 years since first full boot and during that time it had survived several border skirmishes, a revolution and two small but highly destructive wars.
Component wise it was largely of Earth origin but it was assembled on Mars at the Independent Aerospace and Science assembly plant 1, Cydonia. Martian independence had been hard fought and won only some 20 years earlier but now a mutually beneficial trade and technologies agreement existed between the two worlds. Of course, there was much unrest for some years after and old wounds re opened on Earth as 995 ‘s memory banks could relate in great detail.

Built as a RWD class 4, 995 was in basically a 23rd century war dog/attack dog with a sentience rating of 2.5 and an estimated leading edge upgrade path of 20 years. After this the unit could have a potential secondary life role spanning perhaps a further 15 to 20 years.

Robotic War Dogs are neurally bonded to their handlers and provide protection and remote attack functions. If the handler is lost the unit will return to a position designated as “home point” behind the combat line and the unit sent further back down the line for reassignment or to a maintenance unit if damaged.

995 had 6 handlers in total the last being recorded as Master-06 Jobobs.S – UK.14658. They would be together for in excess of 5 years and were part of the “seek and destroy” covert operation mopping up remaining off world terrorist cells in southern England. What would come to be the final terrorist act of the conflict was the attack on the Terranavia works outside of Farnborough, Hampshire. With intelligence indicating the attack as highly probable, handlers and RWD units were deployed to quietly neutralise any threat.

It was really a last “finger to the man” gesture by the terrorists but one that even they were unaware would be so successful. Detonating a low yield nuclear device was never considered in a world where devastating energy weapons were available on the black market. It was old tech, dirty tech even but none the less deadly and it killed Master-06 Jobobs.S – UK.14658 and buried 995 under the wall of the building they were in. The device was small and of low yield but made an area of some 40 miles beyond ground zero uninhabitable which included parts of London although London had been under water for the most part for decades.

995 was shielded from electronic countermeasures including EMP and so other than superficial surface damage 995 was ok although its transponder was off line. After finding the body of Master-06 Jobobs.S – UK.14658, 995 remove the dog tags and retired to the designated “home point” which of course was within what would become the no go area. With no transponder signal it was assumed 995 was destroyed and of course no one was venturing into the area for some years.

The home point was also a secondary defensive objective which centred around an important bridge and so with no contact at all from recognised personal 995 stayed put in defensive mode for the next 37 years by which time its power cell was all but depleted.

Some 8 years prior to this 995 had begun the practice of shutting down all but its sensory array in order to conserve energy. During this time wildlife began to venture back into the area and 995 was able to sensor sweep and identify the life forms as being no threat. As the weeks went by the local animal population largely ignored the former war dog. Foxes would use the bridge often and 995 would track them both coming and going but show no sign of life until the day one fox urinated on its foot which 995 took to be a threat.

995 had been shut down for years and so the fox was not only startled by the sudden movement but also by a cacophony of hydraulic and electric start up noises. The fox ran off with a screech of fright and no doubt with empty bowels as well as bladder.

It took an hour or more for 995 to have full function again and threat assessment dictated that regular periods of activity were required to be combat ready and so 995 took to passively stalking foxes and the foxes, once they realised 995 was not a threat, stalked 995.

This went on for years until the advantage that 995 had was greatly diminished by the fact that it had begun to squeak and clunk. There had been much hydraulic fluid loss over the years as seals hardened and leaked and thinly lubricated moving parts wore. In addition the power cell was almost totally drained and so in a final defensive gesture 995 moved to the centre of the bridge, took up an attack stance and waited until the end.