Tank Hunter

I have been lying in wait for hours... days... weeks... I no longer know, my only order is to find enemy columns crossing my path, my creators did not create me with any other purpose, I have not heard any gunfire or battles anywhere near my position so I am unsure as to whether my side has won or lost or if there even was a war to begin with. I can only lie in wait, civilians have walked across my path unimpeded while I wait for the prey I search for, civilian vehicles analyzed for threats merely to find nothing, serving an almost meaningless purpose that I do not even understand. I lie in wait awaiting prey worthy of my design, a monster lying in wait for monsters much larger than myself. there has been a person visiting me everyday talking about meaningless things to me however I do not reply and merely continue on with the mission I was assigned. As seasons begin to change and years pass me by I continue my vigil as was intended until a certain day came upon me.

"My mother used to come here and leave this old thing an offering of thanks, she said someone was inside since it had always been taken, however I am sure by now whoever in inside there is long dead."

A woman and a much older man approach my position, they do not pose a threat so I leave them as I would the others. "looks like a tank hunter drone, advanced weapons used during the war, no one has ever been inside that machine.

The lady skewed her eyebrows, "so animals had taken the offerings my mother had brought it then?"

The man pulled up his pants getting ready to climb one of my legs, "most likely, it did not register her as a threat so it let her be as they were only programmed to deal with large threats that could cause loss of life."

As he approach the maintenance hatch the automated response to identify oneself shocked them both, "Enter Identification Code."

The lady looked down at a piece of paper she had held, "Father Hordinhaal, Bringer of death bless this land with your touch."

"Identification, Myrghabd Objadurr, entry granted."

The lady gave a smug smile, "so this was my grandfathers post which is why mother was attached to this thing, she thought her dad was inside the machine."

As the hatch opened they began deactivating my systems one by one, I had served my purpose my creators had come back to end my task. One by one my senses ceased until there were none left to feel, after that I assumed I had been deactivated however when all senses with more returned to me the world was a far stranger place. I could no longer detect threats, "threat level unknown, beginning firing sequence," Only to find that I no longer held a cannon, I had a strange sense that only gave me one direction viewable from two angles.

When I looked within to access damage I detected none, "damage unknown, firing sequence incomplete, threat level unknown, threat detection damaged, no damage detected..."

"Hello can you hear me?"

"unknown threat detected, locating," as I turned my body around to see the threat behind me I found my mobility was limited, my legs no longer operated the way they were supposed to and found my movement sluggish.

As I turned I saw the woman standing there, the same one who had read the identification, "I am no threat, the war is long over, you have earned the right of integration."

As my once limited world had ended I had somehow earned a world with more than assessing threats and destroying targets, could a monster integrate into a society or would it never make sense?