Work Text:
Sentinels – The advanced guardians that exist to protect Cabin Fever Labs and similar institutions. These Deinonychus-based robots are almost as advanced as a Disassembly Drone, with many clear difference, however.
Sentinel Network and Sentinel Subnets – Beyond the obvious physical difference between Workers and Disassembly Drones, Sentinels are also extremely different in the fact that they have a full delegated network and sub-networks for them. The Sentinel Network is what keeps Sentinels connected and running optimally, allowing them to share information over great distances. When in the same network the Sentinels all share their combined sight, each other’s thoughts can be heard, and their HUDs are combined to share abilities such as pinging a location. If one Sentinel in a network with another sees you, all others in the net see you.
However, should too many Sentinels be connected to the same network at once, their processers will overheat and give out, completely erasing all higher thought or function in almost all connected to the network. Although, it’s been that, very rarely, one keeps full higher function, and its now mindless subordinates will follow each command given. This is not recommended. In order to stop all their Sentinels losing intelligence, Sentinel Subnets were created.
Sentinel Subnets can safely house up to ten Sentinels at once, while limited, it’s safe and allows all Sentinels to remain connected. Each Subnet, or ‘pack’ as the Sentinels themselves call it sometimes, gets a designated leader, who is always connected to the main Network with other leaders and is used as a node for the Subnet to function. Subnet leaders can communicate in the greater Network with other Subnet leaders, letting Subnets share information cleanly between, and then disperse between their own Subnets.
When a Sentinel is not connected to the main Network, nor a Subnet, they’re completely cut off from main communication with other Sentinels. They can still function, but they lose their live information and objective updates from the rest of the Subnet. Scientists acknowledge the possibility of the Main Network falling and prepared a secondary way of communication for those not connected to the Main Network or disconnected from their own. Chirping, warbles, growling, even hissing, and other associated sounds of animal communication. (Eh. Didn’t want to deal with talking raptors.) With chirps being one-word phrases, and warbles being longer and more clear sentences instead of phrases. Growling and hissing mean what you would think. (Politely and permanently borrowed from Thedoodlingnutjob and by proxy Nosferatank. Except this works differently lol.) This is meant to be used between Sentinels, not understood by others such as humans, Workers and Disassemblers.
There is a known and annoying glitch with malfunctioning Sentinel Subnet leaders, with them having the ability to send a pulse that forces all Sentinels in the vicinity to join a new Subnet. This is bad in the fact that it gives the Sentinel power to get more than nine other Subnet members with them. It’s being worked on. (Hah, not anymore! They died :) )
The same glitch also bypasses the need for a Sentinel Reintegration Hub, making this connection unsafe and prone to errors and incompatibilities. This can result in many undesirable alterations to Sentinel OS and hardware, especially if it’s connecting to a damaged Subnet.
Non-Subnet leaders have the ability to merge with a unit available to become a Subnet host. Although, this is never recommended to happen. Like the forced Integration, forced Reintegration into a net could cause the same glitches and errors. It should be noted that forced Reintegration picks the first available Subnet host, this could include a physical server, a computer, or even Worker and Disassembly Drones! This is bad for even more reasons and is only really used if its life or death for the Sentinel without a Subnet. Forced Reintegration allowance is an option turned off on all Subnet Leaders, stopping unwanted Sentinels from joining haphazardly.
Note about connection to drones: There have been a rare few cases of such connections with forced Reintegration. This concerns one Disassembly Drone acting as a guard in the facility for a short time. The Disassembly Drone had a near perfect link with two Sentinels during the time, allowing them to act as a Subnet leader, but not connect to the Main Network. This was further refined to allow for certain Disassembly Drone squads, in the event of deployment, to come with one Subnet equipped Drone and two Sentinels.
The second Forced Reintegration Incident involved one of the facility Test Subjects that was too close to one test. A glitch during the Forced Reintegration caused the Sentinel to lose all higher intelligence. Subject 002 was given a full link with a Sentinel for nearly a whole day before staff found out, staging many violent ‘pranks’ on other subjects, and even attending a research debriefing with the Sentinel, using it as a seat the whole time. Upon discovery, Subject 002 became violent, making the Sentinel attack those who tried to sever her connection. It took a second Sentinel and armed guards to remove the link. 002 was sent to maintenance to remove the bootloop. As for the Sentinel, it was terminated and sent into the scrapyard.
Sentinel Intelligence and You – Sentinels are wildly intelligent, matching that of a Worker and Disassembly Drone. Although, to most they’re seen as mindless beasts given that they can only communicate outside the Network with chirps and warbles. They understand others just fine, though. The stigma around Sentinels lacking higher intelligence is half-true, though. In the event of protocol 1 activation, or ‘KILL ALL ROBOTS RUAGHHGHGHGHGH’ protocol, higher intelligence of Sentinels is suspended, forcing Sentinels to focus on their main mission of creation.
Sentinels are to be monitored for cases of unstable AI in them as well. The eyes of Sentinels turn red upon detection of abnormal AI protocols, letting technicians identify malfunctioning Sentinels easier and faster.
Sentinel Eyes and Why 20/20 Vision is Old News – Like Disassembly Drones, Sentinels come with more than two eyes and one vision; unlike Disassembly Drones, who have five eyes and five visions, Sentinels have six eyes and one vision. This vision is of course visible spectrum. These six eyes carry some of the highest fidelity ocular units available, allowing them to see massive distances. In addition, with the use of a shutter like that of a camera, their vision can be zoomed in to allow better viewing at a greater distance. These shutters also act as a sort of way of making basic facial expressions. Tracking mode is also available in all eyes, letting Sentinels track targets like that of a Disassembly drone.
Stray Wires and Running Out of Space – unfortunately, all of the electronic components didn’t fit inside of a Sentinel chassis, meaning that some of the internal wiring had to become external wiring to let it be operable. While this is a weak point and could easily cause a Sentinel to be deactivated by enemies, armoring it would make the maneuverability of a Sentinel subpar. As such, hopefully the Sentinel is quicker at incapacitating the attacker before they incapacitate it.
Fangs, Claws and Flashlights – The main way a Sentinel fights is via the claws on its feet and hands. For AI targets such as Disassembly Drones and Workers, their main way of fighting switches to the powerful basilisk gaze on their forehead. One flash and the Worker’s or Disassembler’s OS is bricked and sent into a reboot loop, which then has to be manually reset back to normal. Another way of attacking is via its sharp teeth, able to rend metal and flesh apart easily. While not a primary way of attacking, the powerful, large tail on the Sentinel that’s there for maneuverability purposes can be swung to make a large swipe at a target.
Miscellaneous Notes/personal headcanons – The objective on a Sentinel’s internal HUD updates live depending on what the sensors decide, or what the Subnet leader says.
Most of the staff sees them as large dogs sometimes, they tend to act like it as well when a researcher shows such affection. Mildly weird, considering it’s as smart as a human, but the Sentinels don’t seem to care about it.
What Might’ve Happened After Cabin Fever Died is that many of the Sentinels were activated from the Hub, limiting their intelligence and making them hunt down all in Cabin Fever.
A lot of them started to die off, especially in what happened during Cabin Fever.
Alice managed to capture around nine Sentinels, but never figured out how to make a Subnet, despite having a Subnet leader.
All of the Sentinels Alice captured have been running without a proper shutdown for almost the entire time since they were activated (sleep mode only does so much) and have the intelligence (not much) as shown in episode six. This is added onto by the fact that their intelligence was already limited.
All of the Sentinels in Alice’s possession aren’t in a Subnet of any kind. They don't exactly have access to Forced Reintegration due to lack of intelligence.
Elaborations – The damage from Forced Reintegration range. With a loss of intelligence, losing control of a limb or piece of body, or simply having weaker eyesight. Completely random. Unless the thing they’re connecting to is over capacity, then it’ll be really bad.