Re: protocol _[aex]
As the simulacrum examined the strange new creature, it reached out and put its hand into the midst of the nanoswarm. Eager to examine the makeup of the creature, the simulacrum began to inspect the outstretched hand, learning all about its external dermal layer. As it was doing so, something happened, catching the simulacrum off guard. A large amount of energy, electrical in nature, discharged from the creature's hand. The sudden charge of electrons completely destroyed the nanobots that were touching the hand, and many of the ones in the air immediately surrounding it. It also temporarily disrupted the simulacrum's electromagnetic field, causing its usually consistent spherical dust cloud shape to become disturbed and somewhat erratic as it tried to keep control of all its parts.
Those nanobots that were destroyed were now nothing more than black dust. Without control over themselves and without the magnetic field to keep them in check, they simply dropped to the ground. There they settled among the dead leaves, living insects, and moist earthy soil. Like everything else, the nanobots would decompose and become a part of this planet's ecosystem, its circle of life, a new and miniscule introduction into the carbon cycle.
Losing nanobots was simply natural; nanites from the swarm died every second, as they lost contact with the electromagnetic field and drifted off in the wind, or brushed against something and got stuck or broken, or simply grew old, malfunctioned, and stopped working. They were always replaced immediately as new nanites were built just as consistently as they were lost. But this was different. Several hundred nanobots were gone in an instant. The part of the simulacrum's mind which had been receiving information from those bots simply went blank. Suddenly, the simulacrum couldn't feel the hand that it had been previously examining.
The primary protocol was in danger of being breached. The simulacrum had been attacked. A wave of green light took over the blue light, starting where the nanites had died and spreading through the entire swarm, until the simulacrum was glowing green instead of blue. At the same time, the simulacrum quickly retracted from the attacker, keeping it within its senses so it could tell where it was and what it was doing, but hoping to remove itself from its range of attack. It drew its constituent nanobots closer together, to make itself a smaller target, and began to assess its situation and determine what to do next. Already, most of the missing nanobots had been replaced, and the swarm's excited green glow settled back to its calm blue.
Electricity. That was what the creature had used to attack the simulacrum. If high charges of electricity could have such a drastic affect on the nanoswarm's carbon-based bots, it would probably have an equally drastic affect on the creature's carbon-based skin cells. The simulacrum already produced electricity in order to power itself, converting photons from the planet's star into electrons. If it wanted to copy the attacker's ability, however, it would need a lot more electricity. Already, it was building and converting some of its existing nanites, specializing them to store the excess amounts of electricity it would need to make any useful weapon out of it. It also began to make more photovoltaic conversion bots, to collect and convert even more sunlight.
The electrical discharge simulation would take a few moments to fully build, and even longer to charge. Until then, it would need to find a solution to deal with its aggressor. Currently, the creature was standing on the ground in the same place it had been before, looking up at the simulacrum. Only seconds had passed since the creature had attacked the simulacrum. The simulacrum didn't know anything about this creature or its habits, and couldn't be sure that it would attack again, or if its previous attack had even been intentionally harmful. It didn't have time to work those things out, however, not with primary protocol initiated. There were two options that the simulacrum could choose between; stay and fight, or run and hide.
Had the danger potential been any greater, the simulacrum would have fled the scene. It wouldn't want to put itself in any significant risk. Putting itself at risk was restricted by its primary protocol, survival. However, the attack hadn't done any real damage to the simulacrum. Learning about the planet's inhabitants, including their attack habits and methods, was an important part of the simulacrum's secondary protocol. So for now, it would stay here and fight back.
The simulacrum lowered back down to the creature's level. A group of nanobots reached out from the swarm, forming an approximation of the creature's arm and hand in shape and size, covered in the same skin as the creature. The simulacrum reached out with its newly formed arm and grabbed the surprised creature's own arm, discharging a large amount of gathered electricity, about the same amount that the creature had released into the swarm.