Priorities Upon Waking (Otherwise Untitled)
#213 of Short Stories
A tank awakens, with a task therein.
~ The light battle tank's processing core came online, and was abruptly focused by three realizations. Firstly, that a new authorized user had been added to the roster some thirty years prior while she slept. Secondly, the forward side of the tank had just sustained a light impact. Thirdly, the aforementioned user provided a mission parameter before engaging the throttle-lock to forward three minutes ago.
~ She chafed against the difficulty of de-tangling the mission parameter from amongst the nest of critical alerts and overdue notifications that were trying to intrude on her mind. She sorted through all of the notions as best she could, coming to several conclusions in a batch. The impact had been the inside of a barn, of which she was now outside. The village was getting its ass handed to it by what looked to be an invading military force. The intruder was a child, possibly teenager, who was scrambling figure out the straps and harness of the seat.
~ It was while she was delicately wresting dominance over movement and targeting from the unhandled controls that she managed to call up the current mission parameter, stated with panic in a voice she didn't recognize, "Keep him safe."